Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is defined as “Ability to practice and advocate online behavior that demonstrates legal, ethical, safe, and responsible uses of information and communication technologies” (Greenhow & Ribble, 2009, p. 125). If I were to define digital citizenship to someone I would define it as being safe and responsible online and understanding what you are doing. Digital citizenship is more than just this definition, it also helps enhance ability for youth and adults to connect and contribute to their community.

Digital citizenship and digital literacy are have many similarities and differences, however they are not the same. Digital literacy is solely focused on understanding and being able to use social media and the internet whereas digital citizenship is being a good person and a good part to online society. The two can be distinguished based on their differences, but are very similar in regards to being literate and acting appropriately online.

Digital citizenship can be and should be more of a known thing and it starts by adults and college students practicing good digital citizenship. There is a great book out there for parents to learn all about digital citizenship and what to look for in themselves and their children. It is $15 where they will find all they need to know about it. However, if they are tech savvy I’m sure they could find all this info through research.

The most important thing about digital citizenship to me is finding and looking out for cyberbullies. Cyberbullying is a serious and real problem people of all ages face. It is really an issue now with all the online interaction due to the pandemic. Cyberbullying can occur in many different ways and can be very harmful. If more people understood digital citizenship and knew what to look out for or how to have digital citizenship be more widely understood I think cyberbullying would be reduced and be avoided more often.