Digital Citizenship in the Posthuman Era

Abstract

The creation of the internet has had a profound effect on human communication, transforming the daily lives of millions of people around the world. One of the most obvious benefits offered by cyberspace is the ability to participate in a wide variety of social transactions — often from the comfort and safety of home. This has also, however, been the cause of much anxiety and paranoia with respect to children and their use of the internet, as the globalised nature of cyberspace and the ease with which individuals can assume multiple identities while online raise questions about the extent to which children’s developing media literacy skills can protect them from predatory adults. Much public debate about children/teenagers and the internet has thus focused on how to minimise harm, rather than on the ways in which the internet and other digital technologies might actually foster and enable a range of productive behaviours in young people. Kathryn Montgomery and Barbara Gottlieb-Robles write that “youth are more than just consumers of digital content; they are also active participants and creators of this new media culture” (2006: 132). Don Tapscott takes this argument a step further, suggesting: “for the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society… Boomers stand back. Already these kids are learning, playing, communicating, working and creating communities very differently than their parents. They are a force for social transformation” (1998: 1–2).