There is a clear problem with digital literacy.
Don’t get me wrong, I too laugh at grandma struggling to understand what is so plain to us. However not understanding how to navigate hardware is not a big deal. Not knowing how to navigate the online space and the many cultures and sub cultures that exist in it, is. I am aware of the dark side of digital illiteracy, and how it is exploited by people from my generation who grew up with, and in the wake of, the Digital space.
I grew up along with the internet. Back when things were still new and shiny, and infinitely clunky. As a child I was in AOL chats speaking to friends and adults a like. Mostly in the U.S., but occasionally some people from abroad. I remember when the search engines were not as well curated, and when porn would pop up at will. Rule 34 used to actually mean something back then.
I was there to witness the birth of trolls and catfish, and remember when they were reviled and mocked for being cowards who used their anonymity to say and do the most outlandish shit.
I saw more dick pics at 8 than I have ever seen as an adult.
I’ve watched as the digital space changed. I’ve also watched as online trolls that used to be shunned, have become more and more bold.
Digital Literacy
Eyman noted that digital literacy is not limited to our knowledge of the tools, instead it includes how we take those tools and use them to interpret and produce a variety of content from text to videos to interactive media.
It also involves our ability to navigate the digital environment, our ability to evaluate the credibility of online sources, and our ability to understand the effect the digital world has on our real world lives. Along with these understandings comes the need to understand the ethical repercussion of our actions. Something that is becoming more and more apparent, we sorely lack.
Why does it matter?
So there is some horror that comes with watching online meme’s find their way into our real world. Even more so into our politics.
There is something morbidly hilarious about being able to relate to an episode of Community that centers on a “civil war” over a pillow and blanket fort and how silly little fights can spiral into equally silly, yet real repercussions.
Still, when I look back on “The Tumblr/4chan War of 2014”, I can see how a foolish little online culture war, that was carried out by a bunch of tweens and terminally online adults (on either side), some how spilled out into the real world without missing a step.
In fact the only major difference is that many older members in our society, along with those who actually lived their lives from the younger generations, have been snatched up in a whirl wind of misinformation, meme’s and the needy post of trolls.
My parents used to tell me not to believe everyone and everything I saw online. A lesson I learned to survive a digital space that was wild and untamed without their help. But the illusion of security seems to have lulled those same adults into a false sense of safety. These same adults teach this to their children.
They lack the basic amount digital literacy necessary to survive and navigate the digital space, because they didn’t take seriously in the beginning.
Now I have to tell grandma and mom not to believe everything they see online.
Oh how the turn tables.
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