CDLC001
Assessment 1
Critical Reflection Blog
14472056
Figure 1
International Computer and Information Literacy study
(Direção-Geral da Educação, 2018). CC BY 2.0
Digital Literacies
To be considered digitally literate, one must understand who is being represented, understand how language works, be aware of the media production process, and be aware of one's position as an audience (Buckingham, 2016).
This may sound very simple, yet given the past and current trends and debates within social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Tiktok, it is clear that most users of the Internet are not digitally literate, even our youngest generation who are claiming to be tech savvy for being born in the information age, cannot be seen as digitally literate (Strauss, 2019) within the framework mentioned above.
According to the 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy study - a computer-based international assessment of eighth-grade students' capacities to use information technology in different ways, only 2% of the students involved with the study had the highest level of computer and information literacy and computational thinking skills, and another 19% of students can work independently with computers as information-gathering and management tools (Strauss, 2019).
While it could be argued that children are not mentally developed to portray digital literacy, a "law" was conceived for satirical content on the Internet. Poe's Law is essentially that when something is posted online, if it doesn't have any significant flags to show that it is satire, someone is bound to believe that it is genuine and sincere (Hall-Geisler, 2021).
Without a decent level of digital literacy, it would be difficult to tell apart the truths and the lies on the Internet and fall victim to the abyss that is false truths.
Critical Thinking
Branching off the earlier theme of digital literacies, many users of the Internet also appear to lack critical thinking.
According to the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, critical thinking is defined as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action (Scriven & Paul, 1987). Simply put, it is to logically think about information.
Over the past few years, TikTok has given rise to at least two dozen dangerous trends that have led to injuries and even fatalities of teenagers (Cost et al., 2022).
For example, the inflammatory or Benadryl challenge is about consuming enough Benadryl to cause hallucinations. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is an over-the-counter antihistamine that is used as a sleep aid, as well as to suppress stuffy, runny noses, dry coughs and sneezes, and when overdosed, it can reduce cognition, cause irregular heart rhythms and cause seizures (Hsu, 2020). After drinking large amounts of the drug, challengers then post the footage on the platform. This has led to multiple fatalities and several other near-fatal incidents, prompting the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and the Food and Drug Administration to issue public service announcements warning teens not to abuse the antihistamine medication (Cost et al., 2022).
Another example of these deadly trends is #boatjumping, where people are challenged to leap off a boat that is in motion and has caused 4 deaths in Birmingham, Alabama (Lee, 2023). By diving into the water head first, the challengers would snap their necks and drown, whilst having their unfortunate deaths recorded on camera (Raiken, 2023).
From the examples shown above, and the many more that have not been mentioned, or perhaps even those yet to come, it is evident that users of the Internet lack the ability to consider the consequences of their actions, leading to the death of their own and many others by blindly pursuing Internet fame.
Figure 2
Children's Benadryl Dye-Free Allergy Liquid, Diphenhydramine HCl, Bubble Gum, 4 fl. oz 4 Fl Oz
(GoSupps.com, n.d.)
Figure 3
​
(Petrosyan, 2023)
Digital Access and Inclusion
The Internet is said to be open and free for all. However, that is not exactly true.
Firstly, the language barrier. The Internet is dominated by a staggering 58.8% of English content on the web (Gration, 2021), yet only 17% of the population is capable of speaking it (Petrosyan, 2023). This suggests that a majority of the population is incapable of fully comprehending the content on the Internet.
Second, data access. As of April 2023, there are 5.18 billion Internet users, which accounts for 64.6% of the global population (Petrosyan, 2023). A large portion of the population do not have Internet access or smart devices, so they simply cannot use the Internet.
Lastly, digital and computer literacy. One can be capable of reading, writing, listening, or speaking a language such as English and have no mental or physical disability, but be unfamiliar with using smart devices to access the Internet. Around a quarter of the 1.4 million who are aged 65 or above in Australia cannot use the Internet because of such reasons, and Internet usage generally decreases with age (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020).
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2020). Use of information technology by people with disability, older people and primary carers. https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/use-information-technology-people-disability-older-people-and-primary-carers
Buckingham, David. (2015). Defining digital literacy: What do young people need to know about digital media?. Medienbildung in Neuen Kulturräumen Die Deutschprachige Und Britische Diskussion. 2015. 21-34. 10.18261/ISSN1891-943X-2006-04-03.
Cost, B., Grace, A., Dellatto, M., Hegedus, E. (2022, September 23). The 24 craziest TikTok challenges so far. news.com.au. https://nypost.com/article/craziest-tiktok-challenges-so-far/
Gration, E. (2021, November 16). English language statistics: how many people speak English worldwide?. preply. https://preply.com/en/blog/english-language-statistics/
Hall-Geisler, K. (2021, May 28). Poe's Law explains a lot about the modern Internet. howstuffworks. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/poes-law.htm
Hsu, B. [chubbyemu]. (2020, September 16). A TikToker drank 2 bottles of Benadryl. This is what happened to her organs. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaAFOrudj0g
Lee, B. Y. (2023, July 11). #Boatjumping trends on TikTok, here are the dangers. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/07/11/boatjumping-trends-on-tiktok-here-are-the-dangers/?sh=5203e6432c02
Petrosyan, A. (2023). Languages most frequently used for web content as of January 2023, by share of websites. statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262946/most-common-languages-on-the-internet/
Petrosyan, A. (2023). Number of internet and social media users worldwide as of April 2023 (in billions). statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
Raiken, A. (2023, July 13). What is the boat jumping challenge seen on social media? Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/boat-jump-challenge-tiktok-deaths-b2372845.html
Scriven, M., & Paul, R. (1987, March). Critical thinking. In The 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, CA (Vol. 7, No. 9).
Strauss, V. (2019, November 16). The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/11/16/todays-kids-may-be-digital-natives-new-study-shows-they-arent-close-being-computer-literate/
List of figures
[Image of International Computer and Information Literacy study]. (2018, March 3). Direção-Geral da Educação. https://www.dge.mec.pt/noticias/icils-2018-international-computer-and-information-literacy-study
[Image of Children's Benadryl Dye-Free Allergy Liquid, Diphenhydramine HCl, Bubble Gum, 4 fl. oz 4 Fl Oz]. (n.d.). GoSupps.com. https://www.gosupps.com/children-s-benadryl-dye-free-allergy-liquid-diphenhydramine-hcl-bubble-gum-4-fl-oz-4-fl-oz-pack-of-1.html