The term "digital settler" is problematic for at least two reasons, and we should discourage its use. Firstly it is already in use to describe a completely different phenomenon: someone on "the digital personality spectrum between digital natives and digital immigrants." <https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/digital-settler/46463#>
Secondly, and more importantly, the term settler is laden with colonial connotations which make it extremely distasteful to cultures that have suffered colonisation.
A much better alternative is "digital neighbours". This is the term that I apply to people who move to Barbados to live for at least a year while they work remotely.
I enjoyed reading this piece, thank you. I've also been very busy with digital nomadism over the last 12 months, especially as a cultural phenomenon in our changing world. However, it looks to me now as though a vast, ongoing shift of global power is inevitable, and that it will be super-hard to predict how this will land. It just seems like, increasingly, "the centre cannot hold," and so we will all, nomads included, be swept along with the tide of change.
The term "digital settler" is problematic for at least two reasons, and we should discourage its use. Firstly it is already in use to describe a completely different phenomenon: someone on "the digital personality spectrum between digital natives and digital immigrants." <https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/digital-settler/46463#>
Secondly, and more importantly, the term settler is laden with colonial connotations which make it extremely distasteful to cultures that have suffered colonisation.
A much better alternative is "digital neighbours". This is the term that I apply to people who move to Barbados to live for at least a year while they work remotely.
I enjoyed reading this piece, thank you. I've also been very busy with digital nomadism over the last 12 months, especially as a cultural phenomenon in our changing world. However, it looks to me now as though a vast, ongoing shift of global power is inevitable, and that it will be super-hard to predict how this will land. It just seems like, increasingly, "the centre cannot hold," and so we will all, nomads included, be swept along with the tide of change.
Ten million empty homes! That's astonishing. And 100% yes to throw away the bucket list. Congrats on a very informative, thought-provoking series.