Michael McNamara
Brown
9/15/17
ERH 221W
Social media: the driving force of digital literacy
Digital Literacy is not a simple topic to discuss, this is due in part to the fact that it is not a well-defined nor understood topic. Digital literacy can’t be simply defined as the ability to use modern day technology, because any one can use it but not everyone understands it. As stated by Prensky in his “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” digital immigrants (those not as good with technology as the millennials or other similar generations) are not the same as adolescents this day in age, they don’t learn the same way and they didn’t grow up with the same technology available.(Prensky 2) That is why today for example we do almost everything with music, we’ve been cultured to it and are accustomed to learning that way. Our culture today is sculpted by social media, most millennials use social media to get news updates and generally to stay up to speed with our rapidly moving society. Even those in the highest seats of power such as our president use twitter daily. Today’s globalized world is connected through social media, the digital literacy that our generation and future generations have and will have is fueled by the wide spread use of social media and will change how our society functions.
Before I discuss my journey to digital literacy I first have to discuss what it is exactly. Digital literacy I believe is defined as the digital culture one associates his/herself with. By this I mean that as a community how they interact with with each other digitally. Today’s day in age the majority of adolescents and young adults center their lives around social media and use it in every aspect of their lives. Meetings are created on Facebook; my club soccer practices and games are all organized on a Facebook group. All of my photos are uploaded to the cloud and shared with everyone from there. Jobs in today’s age will investigate people’s social media to get a “better understanding” of the applicant. My digital literacy is represented through my use of social media. I believe everyone’s is, everyone’s social media page is what they want the world to see about them and is also a great measure of how digitally literate someone actually is. This is because generally speaking the more digitally literate someone is, the more active and wider variety of social media pages someone will have. For example, I have almost every form of social media, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. On the other hand, my father has a Facebook page that he hasn’t logged onto since about 2012. This page consists of his name and date of birth, but no profile picture or any other information. On the other hand, my Facebook page is filled pictures, posts, status updates and likes and dislikes. This represents the digital literacy difference between my father and I and can be used to judge almost anyone’s digital literacy. I didn’t just jump into this and was instantly digitally literate, it’s a process, and it all started when I was first introduced to computers and this type of technology.
When I was in first grade I had my first computer class. In this class, we learned to type and generally learned how to operate a Windows based computer. I remember going every Friday to that class and being as excited as I could be, I loved that class and I loved working with computers. In that class there were about 20 or so computers which we would all sit at and play typing intensive games which would encourage us to assume the proper typing position with our hands. I also recall sitting next to a girl who was not motivated in the least for that class. She would drag her hand across the keyboard making it sound like she was some sort of speed typer. She was the opposite, she would just push random buttons as she dragged her hand across to make it sound as if she was typing but rather, she just wanted to finish her work as fast as possible. Now looking back on it that class may have been what lead me to be the computer science major that I am now. I believe that this indulgence in technology at such an early age would be considered my major sponsor which led me into technology, this led me to pursue further technology and pushed my interest. From this class on I was always extremely interested in technology, I don’t think that I saw the full potential of technology at that time but it had a major impact on my life. Going to that class was easily the highlight of my week and I believe having that association of excitement with that class and what it taught me is what drove me to be the digital native I am today.
These technology classes which were mandatory up until high school I continued to have throughout my academic life. I grew up in a military family and thus moved around a lot, even when I went overseas the schools I went to contained at least an equivalent class that focused on furthering our technological understanding. These classes reinforced further typing skills or introduced us to basic Microsoft software such as Word, PowerPoint or Excel. I don’t believe that I was the only one who benefited and was motivated to pursue technology from these classes. These technology oriented classes helped mold my generation and future ones by introducing and encouraging that use of technology at such a young age. It is obvious today how engulfed younger people are in technology, there are children using iPad’s and 2nd graders with iPhone’s. This isn’t a bad thing it is simply society shifting to being almost entirely digitally literate. My digital literacy today is mainly fueled by social media, it is what draws me to technology more so than anything else. Even being the computer science major that I am I use technology to connect with others more than anything. I believe this is common in most people and something that is relatable to my peers. If everyone around you is communicating through the internet you aren’t going to want to be out of the loop. This will drive you will copy those around you to stay up to date with them. Thus motivating you to learn how to use technology to connect with them.
I don’t think my experience with technology and my indulgence in it is very different from my peers in any major ways. I think that it was common for people to have at least one or two years where they were required to work with a computer for practice in school. We wouldn’t have been able to be coined the label of being digitally literate if we didn’t have at least one common experience that introduced technology to our generation. I think having similar experiences helps bring together as a society our digital literacy, having common classes similar motivations and similar technology being used by everyone brings us together as digital natives, it gives us a common ground.
These various experiences shaped me as a digital literate, and made me who I am today. These experiences showed me the developments of technology of the world and after reflecting on these events I feel like I better understand my journey to digital literacy and how early indulgence into tech can shape how it is used later in one’s life. Social media and its wide spread use today is a driving factor in digital literacy, it is easily a measure of how digitally literate some one is and also a motivator to drive others to become digitally literate. My experience in first grade with computers drove me to further pursue technology. I was then further pushed by the culture around me to use technology with the spreading of social media and its common use by those around me.
Works Cited
Marc Prensky, (2001) “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1”, On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Issue: 5, pp.1-6, https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816