The Good, The Bad & the Ugly Sides of Digital Citizenship
Photo from VecteezyWhat does it mean to be digitally responsible? Using social media as an outlet or platform to speak openly and freely about specific points of view or justice issues can lead in multiple directions. How you choose to utilize the platform (and your words) depicts which direction it will go. Unfortunately, or fortunately, how others choose to do the same in response to your stance has just as much influence on the direction as well.
Photo from VecteezyOver the years there have been hundreds if not thousands, of campaigns that have taken place online via social media and for all those years educators have been encouraged to remain neutral and “out of the light”. In fact, in my first education class, our entire cohort was seated in the auditorium while our head Education professor led us through a slideshow of why it is best to just stay off of social media completely if possible. This has changed in recent years but some educators are still weary of the potential repercussions associated with having an active presence in the world of activism and social justice.
How do you navigate an opinionated online presence while maintaining a positive image? Is it even possible? Furthermore, how do we encourage and guide our students to do the same, safely? Katia Hildebrandt and colleagues discuss the same topic on the following site. The same site encourages educators to assist students in their online presence as justice-oriented citizens and to,
“support them in doing good, productive, and meaningful things online. ”
Can the Ugly Turn Productive and Meaningful?
Recently, in my community, a class took a field trip to a local greenhouse where the owner observed one of the students walk on all four legs and be guided by her mother in a harness. This owner took to social media and posted a video about her thoughts on this young “furry” and made hateful comments about wanting to ‘kick the cat’ and such. After viewing and recording, this post a local educator, from the school that took the field trip, made a public Facebook post about the greenhouse owner and tagged nearly her entire friend list in it. She shamed the owner for dehumanizing the young girl and her mother and let the online world know that the young girl has reasons, that is nobody else’s business, to be in a harness. This educator took an active stance in stating that whether the child was a furry or not should not matter and that demoralizing the mother and dehumanizing the child is not appropriate and that she won’t stand for it. The post has since been removed from Facebook.
In response to the educator’s post, there are now a written post and a video from the owner of the greenhouse as well as a news article from Global News Canada. The video is difficult to watch as the owner becomes incredibly emotional but the news article brings promise. She names the educator publicly, as well as the school, and you can see her struggle to get through her explanation and apologies throughout the entire video. She second-guesses her word usage in the video and even has to get up and leave at one point. This video is an active display of what many online users go through posting anything online that may have a repercussion.
Titled, “Offensive comments in North Battleford, Sask. video lead to learning and forgiveness” sheds light on the direction the original post has now taken. The family of the young girl has reached out to the owner of the greenhouse in a way to educate her on their young family member in hopes that, in the future, the owner will think critically, or investigate further, her judgements before publicly expressing her opinions online.
I believe the incident is taking a natural and meaningful course but it is causing destruction on the way. I also believe all parties are learning a lot through this journey. If approached respectfully, as I think the family of the young girl has done, I think discussions on ‘hot topics’ can be meaningful in educating the public and productive in promoting awareness. The key word being “respectful”.
In this instance, it seems that the topics of ‘judgement’ and ‘freedom of speech’ are being addressed and resolved productively and meaningfully, as the Global News article proves, but I’m not sure that it isn’t springboarding to something more controversial; furries. Additionally, the educator seems to have removed all her participation on the subject and hasn’t surfaced in response yet. Is this an example of why educators retreat from activism? Or is this just an example of two people impulsively posting without informed stances?
The Bad Side of Social Media Activism - False Information
Click to watch the news report about the public being falsely informed about litterboxes in schools and how they are responding.The above incident is far from over and has brought our community to the topic of furries, once again. This ‘issue’ has been a ‘hot topic’ for the last 3 years and I’m sure a lot of the controversy is stemming from FALSE social media activism.
Political leaders, influencers, and parents, among others, are raging over the rumours of litterboxes in schools. Where on Earth did this information come from? This is a prime example of how so much negativity and skepticism can surround a topic. All it takes is one person to begin an online thread and the topic can catch like wildfire, especially when the thread begins with false information to generate chatter - like the topic of litterboxes in schools. This isn’t the only media setting negatively-generated rumours ablaze. Furries have been targeted even before this. Sometimes I feel social media users just want attention or to raise their follower account - no press is bad press, right? Why would this TikTok-er post false information about teaching young students about furries? It did nothing but cause issues for the school board and what did the TikTok-er gain? Were they even real?
The Good
Photo from Vecteezy Without a doubt, there are numerous dangers, cases of false information, and users preying on the naive in the social media world but there are also pros to the use of social media for activism.
Minutes after the incident with George Floyd people all around the world were reporting the incident and news channels couldn’t fight the truth of the personally filmed videos from the public. The truth was out there for the world to see for themselves. The sharing of first-hand footage is one of many pros that typically fall in the realm of social media activism. While some people battle this activism with terms like ‘slacktivism’ and ‘clicktivism’ (as shared in this article) the negatives aren’t nearly as real as projected. Each “click” and share further produces awareness and conversation on the topic of interest. Sure there are those that share or post to jump on the ‘bandwagon’ but isn’t that what campaigns are hoping for? Word spreading like wildfire? I’m not saying they aren’t hoping for people to educate themselves on the issue being presented but, again, press is press.
Social Media and Educators
So where does this leave educators? How do we manage the world of social media and use it for good while navigating the bad? Can we? Millions do it every day but the harsh reality is that we can’t make everyone happy while also being ourselves. I’m sure many will remain neutral but perhaps we can start small. I’m feeling like I have the potential to create a positively active platform but how, I’m not sure yet. Will I? I don’t know. I’m still scared that my community is not yet ready for such participants - maybe that’s the platform I take? A need for public openness and acceptance.
Photo from VecteezyIn my opinion, a safe place to start is sharing posts you agree with that are initially shared or posted by your local school, division, and union. This may safe-proof your stance should anyone from the public attempt to use it against you and your position in education. If your superiors also approve then how can they come down on you for also supporting it? Stemming from that shared post you could expand your search in relation to that topic and share articles you have personally found. Moving forward from this you can create an active profile and become a justice-oriented digital citizen. Where you choose to go from there is up to you.
Happy Sharing.