What even is Digital Literacy?

“Digital Literacy” is the sort of term that has always really confused me. I understand the two separately well enough. Literacy refers to someone being able to read/write/understand a particular language or vernacular, while “digital” usually refers to concepts relating to the internet and technology. However, when one puts the two together I become utterly bewildered. Thankfully, Doug Eyman’s section on digital literacy from his article “Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, and Practice” helped to make the whole concept easier to understand.

Eyman

Eyman referred to digital literacy as a “requirement” in understanding digital rhetoric. This made sense to me, as regular literacy would be a requirement for engaging in a more standard rhetoric in other situations. It was at that point that I came to realize that digital literacy referred less to language-based knowledge, but instead general internet related knowledge and safety. One is not digitally illiterate because they do not know what TTYL or ELI5 means. Instead, one would be digitally illiterate if they can not tell that an image has been created entirely by A.I.

People my age (Generation Z) do not understand just how rare real digital literacy is in this world. If one found A.I. generated content on the internet, they would find thousands of comments thinking the post was real. These images include things as absurd as someone with seven fingers on each hand, and yet they will still fool people. In this way, digital literacy necessitates a fair amount of cynicism. One must traverse the internet assuming that most things are either exaggerated or entirely falsified. Especially in today’s day and age, where information is more subjective than ever.

Anxieties

I am downright fearful for the future in terms of online literacy. Too many people view the internet as just an avenue to have fun. In actuality it is the greatest source of information on the planet. We take this information for granted, which will lead to us being fooled by those who do not have our best interests at heart.

Here is a link to Eyman’s article

Related posts:

The confusing concept of Digital Rhetoric Digital Literacy Digital Literacy is a Two-Way Process Multiliteracies: What Does It Mean?