What digital Citizenship means to me in my personal life is making sure that I am ethical in what I am posting and sharing. I believe it is completely unnecessary to post things that will harm others. I want to have a positive citizenship in the way I present myself to the online world. I want to respect my family and friends in what I post or comment on. There are different social media sites that I use that I keep my profile and posts private so that only friends I have on the social media site I use can see what I am sharing. I want my footprint in my personal life to show the genuineness of my love for my family. I am a family man and I love to post the triumphs or successes that my family has made. Getting married, the birth of my son, the purchase of our home, and my family outside of my home. At the same time, I have sites that I use where my profile is not set to private so that I can get input and encouragement from others who have families that could be in a struggle or have also had a triumph. I am able to give advice and receive advice to and from others. I believe these things will give me a more positive digital citizenship. I want to be an encourager, not a problem starter.
When it comes to my professional life in my digital citizenship, this has been amazingly helpful for me to be able to share ideas I have with working in the Special Needs world. I am able to share articles or videos where I have learned a new concept that will help my kiddos. Also, other educators have responded with advice they have and other resources that they use where they have learned something that has helped them. This gives me joy having fellow digital citizens to communicate with professionally from all over. Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr have been great tools that have helped me.
I have only had a couple of instances where my feelings were hurt online. I was unfortunate because a comment was made that was hurtful by an old friend I had about where my future was going. But other than that, the only things people have responded with that were offensive would be on Reddit or YouTube where I post something I found or made that I was funny and I was cursed at or people commented that it was horrible or stupid. That didn't really hurt my feelings because I know there are digital citizens out there that look to write offensive comments. I never responded to them because there is no point in fighting back. That is their opinion and I think that get angry with it will get me nowhere.
I have not tried to intentionally find a way to hurt people's feelings. I think that is a complete waste of time and it is not proper digital citizenship. One offensive comment you make can bring a negative effect on your digital citizenship. One person could see an offensive comment or post that hurt their feelings and that would be all they remember you by.
The concerns of fears and lurking dangers would prevent digital citizens from being in a participatory culture would be the fear of stealing, getting your account hacked into, and harassment. We have to remember that there are such things as digital crimes, and those crimes are illegal. If you look at the article about the nine themes of digital citizenship, the ninth theme is Digital Security. The article mentions that we keep our home safe with locks and fire alarms and more and we can apply this to our online world. We must be careful of what we are doing. In this way, we can feel safe and be able to express our creativity and be comfortable in being a part of a participatory culture.
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