The Urgency of Then, and Now

I don't know if it's my age or unresolved teenaged angst, but it has always bothered me when I hear complaints about teenagers and how well they know social media, but are completely lost when it comes to educational technology or everyday activities. Maybe it's because I'm also someone that spends an incredible amount of time on my phone, but I empathize with my kids and their relationship to digital media. It's more difficult to learn a tool than it is a social media app since that's what we've known for the bulk of our lives. Instead of fighting the technology and the lack of knowledge on it, I'm doing my best to welcome and build on it, especially given the content I teach. 

In a 2010 article, Howard Rheingold mentions five interconnected social media literacies to become a "critical consumer of digital media." They are: 

1. Attention
2. Participation
3. Collaboration
4. Network Awareness
5. Critical Consumption

While all of these literacies are important, out of the five social media literacies that Rheingold lists, I feel that critical consumption is an essential literacy for students to learn, if not the most essential. As most of you know, I teach Civics, and one of the skills I spent a great deal of time teaching is contextualizing the news and information. We go back to the basics - the author, the date, and the publisher while also paying attention to the Media Bias Chart that All Sides offers. It's always well worth it because I remind myself that the students that were citing Breitbart as a trusted source of information will usually look to The Hill or BBC by the end of the semester. While some can say that "the medium is the message," I've learned it's actually more about the contextualization that is the message. When we ask the basic investigative questions, we tend to find out more about what this article will say before even reading it. 

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One thing I mention to my students is they cannot be passive when it comes to online information. They just can't. Their role in society, and in my class, is to identify key parts of the information we are digesting while also participating, connecting, and critiquing said information. Rheingold further states, "when you participate, you become an active citizen rather than simply a passive consumer of what is sold to you, what is taught to you, and what your government wants you to believe." It's truly incredible seeing my students blossom and become more compelled to understand what is going on in the world around them and I think a crucial aspect of that is teaching the skill of critical consumption within social media. 

As Rheingold states, "we are seeing a change in their participation in society—yet this does not mean that they automatically understand the rhetorics of participation, something that is particularly important for citizens." I quickly learned that I cannot assume that all of my students understand how to interact with online information at 17 and 18 years old. I also don’t believe in the "myth of the digital natives" who know everything because they have had access to technology since they could crawl. What I can do is use what they do know and transfer those skills that already exist to help them understand what it means to be an active consumer and critic of information.

Over the weekend, I watched a video where actor Sasha Baron Cohen breaks down a scene from the movie, The Trial of the Chicago 7, with the director Aaron Sorkin. In the breakdown of an important scene, Sorkin mentions that the 2016 President Election almost demanded the production of the film -- that it was more a commentary of today's society, rather than that of 1967. I feel the same about Rheingold's article. Even though it was written in 2010, it honestly can fit well in today's world. The amount of misinformation online combined with a lack of skills in critical consumption and confirmation biases, leads to so many of our students, and adults alike, not having the skills needed to be an active participant online. The irony in this is that in both situations this was propelled by everything that has happened since 2016, and before. However, it's through these skills, and one in particular, that we can become well-rounded, participants, and active citizens.