The Web is beneficial and harmful depending on the measures taken. In Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing with Digital Technologies by Lindsey Kim, she talks about data gathering and how using several browser extensions prevents certain data-gathering tactics websites utilize. These browser extensions help minimize the amount of data that sites are able to gather from you, the user. In addition, in Messy & Chaotic Learning: A Domains Presentation at Keene State College by Martha Fay Burtis, she talks about fake news and inaccurate facts. Misinformation gets stirred around within algorithms and the internet uses them to present information online. Internet Literacy is how I refer to being able to understand how the internet works.
Digital Citizenship
To become internet literate , we need to understand how the Web works as well as accepting it is here to stay. We all contribute to its existence as well as its growth and evolution. When searching something up online, you leave traces behind and those traces become part of the internet. It is hard to find reputable sources online without feeling distrustful. Real facts are out there, but sometimes buried beneath false information. Do ample amount of research to find the truth, but be aware of the validity of information you put out there too. We are all responsible for the contents and credibility of the Web. Essentially, we are the Web.
Covering your Tracks
It is easy to click through links because the internet is so instantaneous. But we don’t think much about what happens every time we visit websites and what we leave behind. Keeping this in mind adds to our internet literacy.
It makes me think about how I will search a specific movie and that film pops up everywhere. I go onto my phone and Netflix recommends that movie to me in ADs and notifications. The internet works in sketchy ways like that. It has to make us all conscious of how clever and observant it is and what that means for our privacy. Do research on ways to combat data gathering, how it works and how to prevent it. This ensures your private information stays out of their hands.
To create a space that is truthful and private is a collective effort and we all must uphold a positive sense of digital citizenship.
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