The Digital Education Crisis: How Native Analog Teaching Is Failing Native Digital Students & The Massive Opportunity Ahead

For some Native Analogs, this is sort of like being told the earth isn’t actually flat or round, but a hologram floating in the metaverse.

ARRRRRRRR!!!!! Happy end of the year, Pirates. As we move through 2021 and into 2022, we just wanted to take a moment to say Thank You for being on this Pirate Ship with us. We started Category Pirates last January with the hopes of helping entrepreneurs, executives, marketers, writers, and creators learn how to think DIFFERENT—and we have been absolutely blown away by how many pirates have hopped aboard since then. 

2021 was legendary. Now, let’s make 2022 LEGENDARIER! ARRRRRR!!!!!

PS: Don’t forget to grab (Analog or Digital) copies of our new books, The Category Design Toolkit & A Marketer’s Guide To Category Design.

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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

Native Analogs that don’t know they are Native Analogs are having a very hard time navigating the Native Digital future.

In one of our previous mini-books, A New Category Of Human, we wrote about how one of the most profound shifts happening in the world today is that older generations and younger generations are debating (with both their words and actions) about the definition of “reality”—and it’s a shift happening in plain sight.

There are two types of people on planet earth today:

• The first are Native Analogs. These are Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers born anywhere from the 1940s all the way up to the early ‘80s. Today, they range between the ages of 40 and 75+, and make up approximately 136.8 million Americans.

• The second are Native Digitals. These are Millennials and Gen-Zers born between the early 1980s to as recently as the 2010s. These demographics are around 35 years of age on the high end today, down to as young as 6 years old, and make up approximately 140.1 million Americans.

The fundamental difference between the two, however, is not age (which is what the “Millennial vs Baby Boomer” debate is often reduced to), but definition of reality. Native Analogs grew up in a time where technology was an addition, or better yet, a distraction from their real lives (“Hey! No screens at the dinner table!”). Meanwhile, Native Digitals grew up in a time where their “real” lives were a distraction from their digital lives (“Mom! Leave me alone, I’m responding to my followers on TikTok!”). As a result, if you are a Native Digital, your primary reality is not the outside world. Your reality is the world inside your phone, game console, laptop, iPad, or smartwatch—and the outside reality is an addition, a secondary experience to your primary, digital reality.

This is a material change. Many Native Analogs dismiss this as simply normal generational differences (or get angry and hear what we’re saying as ageism). But it’s not. Right now, we’re experiencing a fundamental change in how humans experience life. Maybe the most profound difference ever. 

For some Native Analogs, this is sort of like being told the earth isn’t actually flat or round, but a hologram floating in the metaverse. 

Here’s the exact moment Neo from “The Matrix” (AKA Keanu Reeves) discovers just how profound the difference between Native Analogs and Native Digitals truly is.

In this mini-book, our aim is to help educators and parents understand just how powerful of a shift this is—why a Native Analog teaching system is failing Native Digital students, and how the legacy education category is three generations away from being rendered obsolete.

However, before we dive in, we want to be very clear here: if you are a Native Analog, it may sound as if we are being “ageist,” as if we have some sort of vendetta against older people. (Let us remind you that both Pirate Christopher and Pirate Eddie are Native Analogs, and Pirate Cole is one of those Millennials who is undoubtedly a Native Digital but remembers life before high-speed Internet, smartphones, and YouTube—so everything we are saying to you, we are also saying to ourselves.)

In a metaphor we are saying, as a Native Analog in a now Native Digital world, you’ve just moved to Japan.

Welcome to Tokyo!

And now that you’re living in Japan, there are a set of skills you need to cultivate in order to live in Japan (opposed to wherever you came from, maybe Chicago). You need to learn some Japanese. You need to get a sense for the cuisine (what agrees with your stomach and what doesn’t). You need to learn fundamentally different values, morals, and social skills. You need to figure out everything from public transportation to which careers matter most. There are fundamental changes you need to make to the way you live, work and play if you are going to successfully live in Japan.

However…

If you do not learn these things, and go on thinking you’re living and acting like you’re still in Chicago (when really you’re in Tokyo), you’re going to have some major problems. Problems ranging from having a hard time making friends, to finding opportunities for work, to buying your groceries or being able to find a suitable mate. 

So:

1. Wake up. You’re in Tokyo. (The primary reality is not Analog anymore. It’s Digital.)

2. And now that you’re in Tokyo, let us help you. (We need to start back at square one.)

Sound good, Pirates?

Now grab a pint-o’-rum and let’s set sail.

Because the education world is changing, and we have a lot to cover.

Why Native Analog Education Is Failing Native Digital Students

Most people who create curriculums today are Native Analogs.

• Middle school and high school teachers

• College professors

• Adjunct professors

• Textbook companies

• Research programs

And yet, there is a Grand Canyon-sized chasm between what these Native Analog educators know and what Native Digitals want and need to learn. (Because they live in entirely different realities.)