The Natives are Restless: The Effect of Age And Interativity on Consumer Response to Digital Information Products

Abstract

New hardware platforms such as the Amazon Kindle™ and Apple’s iPad™ are providing new form factors for consuming information in digital form. In the same way that commerce has been transformed through the Internet, information consumption has seen two major transformations: the transformation of physical media from paper to computer screen as well as the transformation of readers into computer users. One of the key factors at work on consumer response to this transformation may be the potential for interactivity. The effect of interactivity on consumer satisfaction has been documented in web site, advertising and online shopping contexts. However, research regarding interactivity in the context of digital information products is limited. Additionally, education scholars have theorized that “digital natives,” who came of age in the era of proliferation of the World Wide Web, differ from “digital immigrants” in fundamental ways that would impact their response to the consumption of digital information (Prensky, 2005). This paper suggests that the positive effects of interactivity found in the contexts of web sites, advertising, and online shopping may be moderated by whether the consumer is a “digital native” or a “digital immigrant.”