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Digital Equity and Divide, Reflection Post #4

Digital equity and digital divide are very prominent in today's digital world. Digital equity is defined as, “ensuring all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.  (The National Digital Inclusion Alliance,  2016). ” To me, digital equity means assuring that all individuals have some sort of internet access and digital tools, to be able to participate in our digital world. Digital divide is defined as a term that, “initially introduced to describe people with and without physical access to telephones and personal computers  (Pazurek & Feyissa, 2015).” In my opinion, I see digital divide as the lack of digital access which causes a lack of not only digital awareness, but societal awareness. 

I think these two terms relate to each other, because they both are concerned with all individuals having access to digital technology. This is important today because we heavily rely on digital in our day to day lives. Students need google drive to work on papers, and projects with other students. People need smart phones to go onto their social media, or to connect with others. People need information on the internet for not only work, but to just be aware of current information happening in the world. Digital technology is becoming a very important necessity to excel in learning and being connected to the world. 

Digital technology impacts how people connect to the world. As it becomes more of a necessity to learn and participate in our society it can cause disadvantages to people who may not be able to afford it. This a problem especially for students who don’t control their environments. A school in Pennsylvania, who gave first gave their students Chromebooks in 2016, said, “We assumed that all students had internet access at home, and they don’t. For about 10 percent of our high school students, connectivity was a real issue. (Wong, 2019)” I think as educators want to move into providing their students with more digital technology they have to realize, that not every student has that access at home. 

 However, digital divide during the Corona virus pandemic leaves people at a huge disadvantage. The Pew Charitable Trusts projects that there are about 163 million Americans who lack access to a reliable broadband internet connection (The Conversation, 2020). This is a such a huge amount of people who can not work, go to school, or even just have access to information due to having to quarantine. This affects people as it halts their learning, and ability to provide for themselves. Digital divide in this crisis as been able to show its true affect on people, when they are stripped of their outside access to digital technology. 

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Digital Citizenship in the Digital Word (Reflection Post #3)

Digital citizenship can mean many things to other people. According to Applied Educational Systems, they define it as, “the responsible use of technology by anyone who uses computers, the Internet, and digital devices to engage with society on any level. (Applied Educational Systems, 2020)” However, it has also been simply defined as, “the norms of behavior with regard to technology use. ( Xu, Yang, MacLeod, & Zhu, 2018)” In my opinion, I think that digital citizenship is how we learn to behave and act safely when we are using the internet in any capacity. The digital world can be a dangerous place, but if learned to navigate it safely, it can be a world of opportunities. 

However, a lot of times digital literacy and digital citizenship are often confused as the same things. The similarities between them is that they both are ways of understanding how to use and navigate the internet. They are both concerned with using the internet safely for any use. Also, for both, students have to be aware of how to use the internet positively. So, they can get confused as the same term.

The differences of the two, however, are that digital literacy is just one part of digital citizen ship. Digital literacy focuses on learning digital tools to collaborate and create on the internet (Deye, 2017). Digital citizenship is how you learn to appropriately behave on the internet. There are nine elements of digital citizenship and they are focused on, “ leading and assisting others in building positive digital experiences, to recognize that our actions have consequences to others and to participate in a manner for the common good. (quick summary from Ribble, Bailey, & Ross, 2004)

I think that digital citizenship can also be taught to adults. I think that as individuals we can share this information to our followers so they can read how to behave online. I think educators can teach this in any class that involves the use of digital tools. I also liked and example from Josie Ahlquist, who said that educators can, “develop agreed upon digital expectations or code of ethics that the group will hold each other accountable to. (Ahlquist, 2014)” Overall, students who have learned this so far, at any age, can practice good citizenship for their sake, but also in hopes of inspiring other online-users to practice good behavior online. 

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Social Media & Participatory Culture (Reflection Blog Post #2)

Social media and participatory culture go hand in hand with each other. Participatory culture is, “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 (Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2009).” It relates to social media because social media is a place where anybody can share their work. No matter what it is, content creation is easiest on social media, and easiest to share with people. It can be seen by the world, and doing this can lead to many opportunities for people. 

In my experience with social media and participatory culture, I would say I engage with social media pretty often. I go out of my way sometimes to look at people's videos, photography, and art people put online. If I really like it then I will share it so my followers can see it as well. I also, like to share my photography or videos online. I especially like to use VSCO and Instagram to share my content creation on. However, I also post things about my life, and like other people's posts that share their lives. In Jenkin's research report he found a survey that says, “more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly one-third of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced (Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2009).” To me, this makes total sense because I see the content everywhere. There are so many social media apps that you can use to share any type of work you create, whether it’s just a selfie or a post about your life. 

During this time of crisis, however, I believe that participatory culture on social media is probably growing. So many people are forced to stay at home, and they have all this time on their hands. They can share more and create more. I especially have seen so much more content being created on Tik Tok. So many more of my friends have downloaded the app and are making content, which they didn't do before this crisis. I think this has allowed people to get more creative and to find ways to entertain themselves and their followers through participatory culture. 

However, I also see how participatory culture on social media has also increased with the political side of things. As these news articles or posts from the government pop up, or even just people posting about the pandemic itself, it causes many people to react and engage. In the Understanding Social Media article, they say, “social media didn’t cause these events, but it did change the context for distribution and participation (Hinton & Hjorth, 2013).”  Which is so very true in this day in age. Fake news and media or rumors from other people on social media can cause how people react, especially with a pandemic. Information can easily be distorted and can cause panic amongst users. Participatory culture, when it comes to political news, can be dangerous on spreading misinformation. Also, it has allowed people to participate back with the news. Allowing the government, news channels, and other people involved, to hear how the public feels. 

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Social Media and Its Effect Across the Ages (Reflection Blog #1)

Social Media has become such a prominent part of our everyday lives and is something that is used by all ages. However, the relationships and experiences differ between the age groups. For teens, from the Common Sense Media Infographic said that Snapchat was their most favored platform, while from the Pew Research Center, adults 49 and up preferred platforms Facebook and Youtube. Also, from the Pew Research Center, both the majority of all age groups felt it would not be hard to give up social media platforms. I think that teens and young adults have better experiences with apps that can give them variety and different entertainment to socialize. For older ages, I think that they tend to like social apps that are not complex and can do all forms like posts, photos, and videos.    

In the Common Sense infographic, teens are more likely to feel that social media has a positive impact on their lives such as feeling less lonely, anxious and depressed. They also are more likely to feel more confident, popular and better about themselves. For teens, I think that being able to post about your life, while only showing your best side, makes them feel more confident and seen. While also getting likes and comments can add to this feeling. I also think it connects teens to other peers or to their idols. They can see what their friends are doing or what their favorite celebrities are up to. I know I feel more in the know when I can see the updates from the people I follow. As a person who also has anxiety, being able to distract myself and focus on something else like Twitter, or Instagram I feel less anxious. Is that helpful in the long run? I don’t think so, but it helps in the moment.    

However, teens with low social and wellbeing experiences felt the more negative effects of social media. The majority of these types of teens felt more “left out”, felt bad about themselves if they had no comments or likes and some even deleted platforms due to getting few “likes.” Also, 35% of these teens had been cyberbullied. While the majority of high performing teens have positive experiences on social media, other teens, feel less confident and not as popular. I think all teens can feel this way, however, low social and wellbeing teens have a harder time due to the internal and external forces that are holding them back. When they compare their likes to someone who is more popular, self-deprecation can come into play causing them to feel less than they are. Also, some teens in that stage of life have a harder time socializing, and social media is another form of communication that can be hard for them. Overall, social media can cause low self-esteem in teens, however, it can make them feel connected to their peers and the world.     

One finding that I found interesting from the Common Sense infographic was that 72% of teens felt they were being manipulated by companies to spend more time on their devices. I also find this true, because companies are constantly adding new features to get their users to post or interact with the app. However, I didn’t think that such a big majority of teens would be aware that it was happening. It makes me wonder if they are aware of this, then are they trying to lower their usage of their devices?