When this article was written in 2001 I was in 8th grade, which means I am in the middle of their group of "natives". I agree that I am one of them. I do very little writing that isn't academic. I use a few social networking sites limitedly. I email and write reports for my jobs, but copy those digitally written works from hand written material.
Stage management is a job of organization and communication facilitation among people trying to put on a play. Here is a job description, so you can understand what I'm talking about as I describe my technology use.
I started out in this job thinking I could utilize all new technologies at all times during this job. I thought I could do it sans paper: I could take notes on my computer, denote blocking digitally, store all my lists in digital formats to pull up when I needed them.... but none of these technologies worked for me. When the director asks, "what does that prop look like?", you can't take 45 seconds to find the file, pull it up, wait for it to load, search, and give an answer. It is much easier to open to the tab on the exact page you need and find the answer. I think it is interesting that I reverted to old technologies in light of my "Native" life.
I agree with the podcast thinking that you cannot avoid multitasking in work. At any given time in rehearsal I am doing eight tasks at once. They said that this may hurt my learning in the long run, but multitasking well is the #1 requirement for my job, so the better I can absorb and learn all information at all times for all people, the more effective I will be and will get more work and experience in the field.
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