I am beginning to notice that the digital brat phenomena is not so prevalent among younger users of technology. In fact, not only are young people more adept at using technology, they also have better etiquette. For instance, younger people tend not to speak so loudly on their cell phones in public or use loud ring tones. Another example is the young girl who was texting while making a video call on her mobile phone because she didn’t want to be obtrusive (I wrote about this a couple years ago). I think this is extremely interesting because the etiquette that the young people develop are not from education, but developed amongst themselves.

This isn’t something that one can generalize, especially because the people that I know are brats are also those who have huge egos; so maybe it’s more of an ego issue than an age issue. Maybe it’s because I haven’t gone into a high school classroom where all the kids are texting each other instead of listening to the teacher. But to some extent, I have the feeling that the so-called middle aged early adapters are more “noisy” about their use because they’re unconsciously flaunting it, whereas younger people take the new technology for granted so it’s not so much of a big deal.