Another Look at “Digital Citizenship” (Blog 2)
The assignment for this week strayed from our usual topic. I was not required to do more research or engaging in social media, instead the assignment leaned more towards traditional academics. I read an article titled “Turning Students into Good Digital Citizens” and watched a TED Talk titled “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able.” The next step is for me to compare the two and bring in examples to support my ideas.
In summary, these two sources are talking about the difference of being present in a world of media and knowledge as opposed to being a participant in a world of media and knowledge. Digital citizenship is more than just being present online. Rather, people have a responsibility to participate in a meaningful way in the hope of making the world better. The Internet is extremely powerful because it allows people a public voice that was not as accessible before the Internet. I talked about the feeling of a “void” when posting on the Internet. But in reality, even if I personally feel that my content isn’t being read, it is still on the Internet for anyone and everyone to see. The Internet may feel like a void, but my content is still accessible; my voice is still free to affect the world in whatever small or large amount that it does.
This is true for all users of the Internet; it is not exclusive to content-creators. The megaphone that the Internet can be is available to anyone who has access to it. If users of the Internet choose to put content onto the Net—whether it’s by a blog post (like this class), videos on YouTube, photos on Instagram, tweets on Twitter, or statuses on Facebook—then their voice is put out for the world to hear. Digital citizenship calls us to use this access to this public voice to good, meaningful use.
There are some instances that I’ve witnessed on the Internet where the collected voices of online-users were used in order to help a person or a cause. Earlier this year, a young student named Ahmed Mohamed, 14-years old, made a clock and it was mistaken for a bomb. He was arrested by Texas law enforcement and called a threat to his school. After the outrage of the racial profiling done against Ahmed, social media exploded with support for the student.
The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed became widely used by people on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (as far as I know). Eventually, the collective voices and the hashtag became so viral that reactions from big names everywhere were responding. President Obama, himself, even tweeted from the @POTUS account on Twitter! Eventually, Ahmed was released and was able to receive all the support that was given to him by the public.
Another example that I can think of that shows how people on the Internet can use their voice to help another is by the website GoFundMe. GoFundMe is similar to the website Kickstarter in the aspect that both websites ask for donations from people. While Kickstarter is for creative projects looking for backers, GoFundMe is more for personal funding such as medical bills. Below is an image of a man named Matt who is looking to get skin removal surgery after a losing weight has left him with an excess of skin. I remember seeing a video that he posted of himself shirtless to share himself and his story. He let himself be vulnerable and to promote health and self-love. His video gained a lot of attention by people on social media, and he was featured in several magazines including People. I found that he started a GoFundMe in order to help himself in a way that he cannot financially do on his own.
Anyone who could donate would do so, and if someone could not donate, they would at the very least share it so that their cause gets a boost and hopefully reaches people who can donate to them. While the aid is most beneficial from people who can donate, people on the Internet still have the power and the choice to share the link to help other people.
As millennials, we grew up during the transition to where the Internet became very big and very fast in a short span of time. We know the affect that the Internet carries already, and that affect can be passed onto us. We can’t sit idly by on a media that is so large and can help and change so much. As the article and the video both stated in their own ways, we have the tools to participate, but we must make the effort to do so.
