Comparing First and Second Generation Digital Natives' Internet Use, Internet Anxiety, and Internet Identification

The aim of the study was to compare first and second generation Digital Natives' attitudes toward and use of the Internet. The sample of first generation Digital Natives consisted of 558 students who we surveyed in 2002 and who were born after 1980. The sample of second generation Digital Natives consisted of a sample of 458 students who we surveyed in 2012 and were born after 1993. They completed a questionnaire in the first semester of their first academic year, which consisted of a measure of Internet experience, an Internet anxiety scale, and an Internet identification scale. Second generation Digital Natives had more positive attitudes toward the Internet than first generation Digital Natives. They had higher scores on the Internet identification scale and lower scores on the Internet anxiety scale compared with first generation Digital Natives. Furthermore, we found that second generation Digital Natives used the Internet more than first generation Digital Natives. E-mail was the most popular activity for both generations, although second generation Digital Natives used it significantly more than first generation Digital Natives. Social networking sites emerged as very popular for second generation Digital Natives. Both generations reported low use of Web 2.0 technologies.