Critical digital literacy is truly critical
When I was growing up, I never remember hearing the phrase “ think critically.” I don’t remember a class or a lesson on tips for better critical thinking skills. Maybe the 80s and 90s really were a simpler time because now, as I look to help teach the next generation, I hope that they learn and use critical thinking skills, and when dealing with social media, AI, and the internet, I want them to have the digital literacy skills necessary to survive.
The final in-person lesson of the class had some great presentations from my classmates on the digital skills we all need to safely and healthily navigate the online world. Learning to identify fake news and AI-generated images and videos, identifying bias and misinformation, protecting our private data and our identity, having an ethical code for online discourse. Being able to ignore and avoid some of the more negative aspects of the internet (Cahit Erdem et al., 2022; Kozyreva, 2022; Mansur, 2025).
The final lesson seemed to be the warning that even though AI and technological innovations create new opportunities to learn in fun and amazing ways, these same technologies can be used to hurt, manipulate, and take advantage.
My professor said he is a techno optimist, I hope that I am a realist, but I think I’m more pessimistic. So much of what technology has brought us is good, but we as a society can’t seem to agree on how to regulate or reduce the risk of the more negative side effects. Whether it’s the mental health of our youngest damaged by social media, or the lies that are left to run rampant with fakes. If we can’t work together to prevent these things from proliferating on the internet, then the digital literacy skills may be the most important things we teach our children moving forward.
Sources:
Erdem, C., Oruç, E., Atar, C., & Bağcı, H. (2023). The mediating effect of digital literacy in the relationship between media literacy and digital citizenship. Education and Information Technologies, 28, 4875–4891 [1, 2]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11354-4 [1].
Kozyreva, A., Wineburg, S., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2023). Critical ignoring as a core competence for digital citizens. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 32(1), 81–88 [3, 4]. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221121570 [3].
Mansur, S. (2025). AI literacy as a foundation for digital citizenship in education. Journal of Teacher Education and Research, 20(1), 5–12 [5, 6]. https://doi.org/10.36268/JTER/20102 [5].
