Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives is a book by John Palfrey

John Palfrey

John Palfrey is a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, vice dean for library and information resources, and the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He led a reorganization of the Harvard Law School Library in 2009...

 and Urs Gasser exploring the consequences of the wide availability of internet connectivity to the first generation of people born to it, who Palfrey and Gasser refer to as "digital native

Digital native

A digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technology, and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts...

s". Issues addressed include shifts in the concept of identity, privacy, content creation, activism, and music piracy.

Born Digital has been called "a landmark sociological study of today's early adults." Born Digital was also reviewed in Science and the Washington Post. Library Journal named Born Digital one of its top Science and Technology books for 2008, the only computer science book named to the prestigious list. Two reviews in the British press (The Guardian and the Independent) have also compared the book with Nicholas Carr's The Shallows.

The book has also been criticized for its use of the term "digital natives," among other things.