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Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is a simple, yet complex idea. There are many different ways to define it. Josie Ahlquist is one who defines digital literacy incredibly simply. She states, “Digital Citizenship is responsible technology use” (Ahlquist, 2014). While this sounds simple, Amanda Brace brings up nine different important aspects of digital citizenship. Those being digital access, commerce, communication and collaboration, etiquette, fluency, health and welfare, law, rights and responsibility, and security and privacy (Brace, 2020). 

To me, digital citizenship is complex with many elements, but can be summed up well as how to properly, responsibly, and frequently use technology. I think one aspect of digital citizenship that is very important is the frequency part. I believe it is important to be involved and active because that is a big part of being a citizen. If an American citizen doesn’t actively participate in their country somewhat and also care for and maintain the country and people around them, then I would consider them not being a very good citizen. Although it may not seem as important, this applies equally to digital citizenship.

Digital literacy and digital citizenship are very similar. As a matter of fact, in the nine components of digital citizenship, digital literacy is a direct component of digital citizenship. Digital fluency on this website is defined as, “the process of understanding technology and its use” (Ribble, Bailey, & Ross, 2004). Digital fluency and digital literacy can be considered to be pretty much the same thing. So, I would consider digital literacy to be difficult to distinguish from digital citizenship. Mainly because without good digital literacy, you won’t have good digital citizenship. 

I believe that digital citizenship is a very applicable and important topic in today’s society, especially in children and those who are under the ages of 30. Technology use should definitely be implemented into schools as well as how to properly handle and use technology safely. Teachers could help teach proper citizenship themselves as well as they could also use different curriculums and methods from other sources. Vicki Davis talks about the 9 Key P’s in her blog. I think these are some of the most important thing to teach kids. Other aspects such as literacy can be learned and often even self taught. But, safety online isn’t always common sense. Davis also speaks about students needing to be able to have experience, and that is what helps them learn the most (Davis, 2017). Overall, good digital citizenship is an important trait everyone should learn and know well to help keep everyone safe but also to enhance everyone’s digital experience. 

Source 1: https://www.josieahlquist.com/2014/01/27/infusing-digital-citizenship-into-higher-education/

Source 2: https://edtechendeavours.com/2020/02/12/the-podcast-playback-the-9-elements-of-digital-citizenship-edition/

Source 3: https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html

Source 4: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-need-to-know-vicki-davis

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Social Media and Participatory Culture

As social media grows, so does the endless interactions of others. Social media allows for more communication between the worlds than ever before. Social media is also a direct gateway to participatory culture. Participatory culture is defined as, “a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices” (Source 1). A very important aspect of participatory culture is feeling like you are contributing. There is a sense of mattering and social connectedness which is brought along by social media directly, which is why it directly correlates with the participatory culture theory. 

Henry Jenkins, founder of the participatory culture theory, has five major criteria for defining participatory culture. Many of these criteria were listed in the definition, but I would like to focus on the fifth point of the criteria where he describes participatory culture as one where the people within a community feel a sense of connection to the others within that community (Source 2). I feel like this is really the driving factor in wanting to participate in a community. When I think of this, I think about the similarities to connected learning. Connected learning really emphasizes having a community around you of those with similar interests. These similar interests are really what drive the community connectedness and participation.

After thinking about what really drives me to participate in online communities, I realized it was the similarities to others that made me excited about participation. I have plenty of social media accounts that I don’t really participate much in, primarily because I do not have shared interests in many or because it is too broad of a reach, where I can’t really find a small, specific community. However, the few I do participate in are ones where I can really narrow my search for those who are very similar to me and share interests. Sites like reddit and discord are sites I enjoy participating in because there are so many different communities and groups of people I can relate with. 

Reddit was an interesting site to me that I never really used and barely even knew about until a few months ago. I use it to join subreddits about topics that interest me. I am currently in the process of building a PC and so I have joined many subreddits about doing so. I have asked many questions and others within the community have answered and communicated with me. It is interesting because when going over the criteria Henry Jenkins listed, Reddit is a site that meets those criteria well. The biggest thing I notice is people love to connect with each other and people really do feel like their contributions matter. There are many people who enjoy going onto Reddit to help others and feel like their contributions matter. I view Reddit as a great example of participatory culture for myself personally, and see now how many others use many different social media sites as a source of participatory culture. 

Source 1: https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/jenkins_white_paper.pdf

Source 2: http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html

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Blog Post #1

The Common Sense and Pew Research articles/videos were very interesting. The Common Sense video and article showed a lot about how teens and young adults pretty much live on social media. Many of the kids in the video talked about having much less face-to-face interaction, since all of it is on social media. It also was talked about in the video and the infographic however half of teens are pretty much constantly distracted by their phones, whether it is homework, other people, etc. Another interesting thing I found in the Pew Research article was that a vast majority of the older population also use social media, even though it seems like they all talk about how bad and negative it is. However, while most teens use Instagram and Snapchat, most adult use other sources such as Facebook and even Youtube. 

Social media obviously has many pros and cons, everyone knows that. One of the major pros, which pretty much every kid talked about in the Common Sense video, is the fact that there can be endless interaction. Kids can always talk to their friends and have great relationships with others as a result of this. It was also talked about by Common Sense that social media can help teens feel less lonely and have better self esteem (this is according to those teens). 

However, for all the good, there is also bad. The biggest issue is obviously cyberbullying. Since social media can be completely anonymous, anyone can say or do anything to anyone they want with, most of the time, no repercussions. In part of the Common Sense article, a girl named Aija Mayrock talks about how she was very severely cyberbullies and receiving death threats and other messages from people she didn’t know. This drove her down a rough path until eventually she wrote a book and starting speaking at schools and with others to help them use social media. In the end, even though she was a victim of social media cyberbullying, she decided that there are actually immense positives with social media it just needs to be used with care. 

Another major thing social media is doing to adults and teens alike is decreasing in the amount of face to face time people have with others. According to Common Sense Media, since 2012 there has been an increase is video chatting and texting and a large decrease in face to face interactions with others. Many people can agree that while social media can be very useful for interaction and staying connected, face to face interaction is still very important and necessary.