Digital Natives or Digital Naives? The Role of Skill in Internet Use, the closing plenary from CNI's fall 2013 membership meeting by Eszter Hargittai (Northwestern University), is now online:

The growing diffusion of information technologies influences people’s life chances and raises questions as to their ability to appropriate digital media for their empowerment. Does the spread of information technologies affect different population segments differently? If so, which segments are most likely to benefit and which are most likely to be left behind? Based on original data, the talk considers disparities in people’s Web use skills and how skills relate to what people do online. Those who know how to navigate the Web’s vast landscape can reap significant benefits from it. In contrast, those who lack online abilities may have a harder time dealing with certain logistics of everyday life, may miss out on opportunities and may also obtain incorrect information from unreliable sources or come to rely on unsubstantiated rumors. Analyses suggest that skills are not randomly distributed among users, rather, they depend on demographic and socioeconomic factors as well as user context even when controlling for access differences.