Digital Citizenship Journal #1

When looking at the course schedule at the beginning of this journey in DLL program at Lamar University, one course stuck out to me the most and it was named “Digital Citizenship.” The reason I believed it stuck out, is because I had no idea what it meant but figure it was about how a person conducts themselves online. While that seems to be a portion of what Digital Citizenship means, the course seems to be extremely immersive and going to be a great adventure.

In the first meeting, Dr. Fredy introduced us to the entire course and gave us a quick overview. The focus on the first meeting was introducing us to what is digital citizenship and the importance of being a proactive digital citizen. We did this by “diving in” to the nine elements from Mike Ribbles book Digital Citizenship in Schools. Using these elements and learning about them will give us a great base for the development of our personal definition of what we believe is Digital Citizenship.

One of the biggest things in the discussion that Dr. Fredy talked about was the power of the influencers online. Dr. Fredy showing and discussing that influencers have such a huge impact of the users of social media and that they really are entrepreneurs and that everything they do is intentional. Shunitra’s comments on Cardi B I do believed are the opinions of most of the public. However, I do believe that the influencers who monitor social media (the people behind the curtain) like to share stuff they like, ultimately influencing followers to “like” the stuff too. Take for instance Clear Channel. Radio is very similar to what is being put on social media. Clear Channel controls the airwaves with what they believe people want to hear (or who pays them the most for plays). People listen to popular radio stations and hear the same tracks over and over again, because that’s who Clear Channel wants you to hear. Then on the other spectrum there are the independent stations who play great music that is not played on the secular level but is better. WWOZ out of New Orleans is a great example of an independent radio station that plays what they want to play and share the public. Amazing amounts of unheard of or “non popular” music tracks that everyone find enjoyment in.

But I digress back to the topic at hand and that is influencers. Are they influencing for good or are they influencing to line their own pockets? At both spectrums I do believe there are good influencers and I do believe there are those that are out to make it a business. Shunitra might be correct when she says that our standards have lowered. When did it happen? Why did it happen? Can we get back to being to having the standards held high? It is my belief that we as responsible digital citizens need to disable those accounts who are enabled and not caring about how much they are affecting society.