Negotiating Digital Citizenship

Book excerpt: With pervasive use of mobile devices and social media, there is a constant tension between the promise of new forms of social engagement and the threat of misuse and misappropriation, or the risk of harm and harassment. Negotiating Digital Citizenship explores the diversity of experiences that define digital citizenship. These range from democratic movements that advocate social change via social media platforms to the realities of online abuse, racial or sexual intolerance, harassment and stalking. Young people, educators, social service providers and government authorities have become increasingly enlisted in a new push to define and perform ‘good’ digital citizenship, yet there is little consensus on what this term really means and sparse analysis of the vested interests that drive its definition. The chapters probe the idea of digital citizenship, map its use among policy makers, educators, and activists, and identify avenues for putting the concept to use in improving the digital environments and digitally enabled tenets of contemporary social life. The components of digital citizenship are dissected through questions of control over our online environments, the varieties of contest and activism and possibilities of digital culture and creativity.