A.J. Hunter can’t start the day without first pulling out his laptop. Each morning, the 21-year-old Ball State University junior downloads his schedule onto his Mac Powerbook G4, which ââ?¬â? along with his iPod and cellphone ââ?¬â? is always close at hand. Hunter, of Uniondale, Ind., is a typical tech-savvy college student. He can access the social networking site Facebook from his cellphone. He uses e-mail and instant messaging anywhere on the wireless campus. He downloads music to his laptop and his iPod, and he uses a 1-gigabyte flash drive provided by the university to transfer files and songs and to access his digital portfolio.Technology is so second-nature, ââ?¬Å?I can’t even think of when I use it and when I don’t. It’s such a part of life,ââ?¬Â he says.Hunter isn’t a techno-geek. He’s just a ââ?¬Å?digital nativeââ?¬Â ââ?¬â? a term that has been used to describe millennials, the first generation who grew up in a world filled with computers, cellphones and cable TV.
Office of Strategic Communication