From immigration to nativeness in digital literacy: a mixed-methods study in Turkiye

The term literate is used for individuals who can read and write. Digital literacy is the ability to use the internet and digital technologies effectively. People's ability to adapt to the production of information, developing at an unprecedented speed, is possible with digital literacy. The rapid dissemination of information via the internet can produce misleading results for individuals and societies. This research aims to identify the digital literacy skills of digital immigrants and natives. The main question is: What is the level of digital literacy in individuals? Another question is whether there is a difference between digital natives who grew up with technology from the moment they were born and use digital language as their mother tongue, and immigrants who try to learn digital language but cannot get rid of the influence of their past habits and use this language with an accent. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are both used in the study. In the qualitative study, data were collected from 42 headmen in the central neighbourhoods of Selçuklu District using semi-structured interview questions. In the quantitative study, data were collected from individuals born after and before 1990, residing in the district, using survey questions based on the digital literacy scale. According to the findings, the concept of digital literacy is not yet known, individuals aged 21-30, men, singles, and students have higher digital literacy levels. Problems arising from the inability to access opportunities such as digital technologies, due to infrastructure problems, should be resolved by providing communication training