Digital Role Modeling

As I completed the readings about digital citizenship this week, of course they made me consider my own online behavior. Frankly, I am boring when it comes to my own use of the Internet and my computer. In fact, I may just be boring in general, but that is a consideration for an entirely different blog! I use my computer and the Internet mainly for school, to communicate with friends and family, to purchase items (also mostly dull), and to seek information that interests me (mostly related to pregnancy stuff right now--my baby weighs as much as a cantaloupe and the like).My use of Facebook, for example, does not follow the trend of many of my friends, which is to post mainly politically-oriented cartoons/memes that are usually jibes at the opposite political viewpoint, or to post inane cartoons/images that are just making fun of something, someone, or are just plain goofy. I never click on any items in Facebook because I am aware that sometimes things show up that were never really posted by a person, and they can lead to viruses or porn sites, or whatever. At least, that is what I think. If I truly am interested in a link, I cut and paste it to a new window, or I search for the item in Google to get to it. I guess I am paranoid because I had my email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts hijacked a few years ago and I do not want that to happen again.

I am writing this somewhat stream-of-consciousness post to show that even someone as boring as I am really needed more training in smart, responsible use of the Internet--or at least more reminding of how to act when using the Internet. I got lazy, and did not change my passwords as I should have. There are also still aspects of Internet usage that I do not know fully about. If this is the case for me, how much more true it must be for students. At least I know enough about the possible dangers to be paranoid and do my best to keep safe--young people are not that jaded yet, they need our help to learn how to be safe.

I think my use of the Internet and social media, while perhaps dull, sets a generally good example for my daughter. As she gets older, I will be more open with her about why I do things the way I do. Unfortunately, what I see a lot of my peers doing are things that I do not consider to be setting a good example. The constant use of Facebook as a forum for politcal slander and to mock people in various ways just seems like it is condoning the type of bullying and abuse that we read about in our articles. There needs to be a way to show our students and our children that the Internet is a powerful tool that should not be used only to make jokes at the expense of others; one that needs to be used carefully and responsibly. That being said, I think one of the best ways to teach them is to be better role models.  Afterall, we need to make the effort to learn how to be good digital citizens before we can teach others.