Citizenship: rights and responsibilites
Wikipedia defines Digital Citizenship as “Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law of a state that bestows on that person (called a citizen) the rights and the duties of citizenship.”
How does hits translate to digital world, in my opinion, is simple and straightforward. No change. How you go about your life in real world is exactly same as you would do in the cyber world.
As soon as we understand this it becomes easy for all parts of our society to relate to their responsibilities and the role they have to play in bringing up our young generation. In our capacities of parents, friends, peers, teachers, school administrators and other staff as well as businesses we all have same duties and rules to follow when it comes to electronic and digital media as we would do for our general interactions.
When looking for an image to put in my post I came up with this image about ‘think’ and I realised that if you take away the Facebook, Messaging, Twitter and Blogger icons you could insert statements like ‘speak to other people’, ‘take pictures’ etc. because the rules listed are same. Aren’t they?
Another aspect of this topic is that I always feel when ‘Digital Citizenship’ is mentioned it is always understood and explained in terms of ‘safety’ and ‘rules’. Even the Wikipedia defines Citizenship in terms of obeying the laws and knowing your rights. I wonder why we do not think of it in terms of how ‘I can understand the context and environment in a way that will help me to make myself a better person and share my creativity with my fellow citizens and to benefit those who are in need’. This short video (below) from Family Online Safety Institute talks about Digital Citizenship on the same lines as my thoughts in this paragraph. It is interesting to read the comments by viewers on the video. As one of the comments goes ‘Digital citizenship. What a joke. Its an excuse for governments to regulate the internet. Don’t let them.’ I feel that if we always link Digital Citizenship to the concept of rules, filtering and don’ts we will fail to involve our young generation in a positive and constructive discussion and this responsibilities, as said before, lies with all of us and not only school and teachers.
1 COMMENT
Really appreciate this statement:
“How does hits translate to digital world, in my opinion, is simple and straightforward. No change. How you go about your life in real world is exactly same as you would do in the cyber world.”
I totally agree, and think this shows in the way people interact online. I often say if someone is a jerk in person, they’re pretty much guaranteed to be a jerk online (and vice versa). If you understand communication and perception and respect in a face-to-face environment, you should be able to understand the same in an online environment.