The Digital Diaries

The last prompt: How did The Digital Citizen and Self change how you think about the Internet, mobile and other digital communication technology.

Knowing that Congress worked so hard to completely overrule this crucial protection is, I admit, a little scary. It really makes me wonder if the government is truly for the people and by the people. In situations like these it seems like the government only commits to actions that pertain to their benefits. But what kind of benefits is the government getting out of this? And what kind of benefits have they enjoyed in the past that consequently led to a compromise in its citizen's right? The internet is still fairly new and young in age, hence why I believe that there will be many more situations like the removal of these privacy rules.

Although technology has drastically improved our lives in many different ways, it is without a doubt that there are cons that come with it. Before technology, communication was more personal and required effort on both parties. Nowadays however, less is being spoken and more is being typed through devices like our cell phones. Though this has made communicating with one another a lot more efficient and has given us the ability to meet new people without leaving the comforts of our home, there was nothing wrong with the way people used to communicate. As people are more reliant on being able to send brief messages or texts to each other, there is a whole new generation who are growing up without truly learning how to communicate verbally and to portray themselves in public. People are no longer truly talking to one another; memories of verbal conversations are no longer made..  instead we have screenshots of insignificant texts.

Not only are we forgetting how to communicate with each other, we are forgetting how to interact with love ones as well. As new and improved developments take place in the technological arena, seeing human beings sit in complete silence next to each other for hours without uttering a word to each other is becoming more and more common. Instead of conversation, people could be sitting in a restaurant enjoying food but instead of enjoying food and the company of others, they are instead enjoying food with the company of Instagram or some sort of social media. As a person who often eats out with my boyfriend, It is so alarming to see other couples or family do this and I just can't understand why so many people are okay with giving up precious moments of their lives in order to view memes or whatever they are looking at, instead of making memories that they could cherish years from now.  

As people of the internet, we can all agree that the internet itself is vast and mysterious. There are many aspects of the web that remain unknown to us; be it purposely or coincidentally. One aspect of the internet that is evident however, is that each and every one of us are Internet Citizens. Though there are many different perspectives as to what an internet citizen truly is, I believe that Internet Citizenship most certainly is no different from citizenship of a country. The internet has many aspects to it and though there are no set of rules and laws that each citizen must follow, there are without a doubt a number of unspoken guidelines that are universally followed. These guidelines essentially decide whether or not an individual is promoting an act of good internet citizenship or bad internet citizenship.

Good internet citizenship could be characterized by the ability to respect one another and to be an open-minded person. With the power of the internet it makes sharing one's views and opinions much easier but at the same time not everyone may agree with everyone's views. Another aspect of good internet citizenship would be the ability to share their criticism and opinions while keeping in mind that everyone will react differently and to be careful about wording as well.

Bad internet citizenship on the other hand is more often than not believed to be simply just trolling and flaming others. Though this is a prime example of bad citizenship, there are more important examples that tend to cause much more danger and discomfort. An example of this is spreading derogatory images or spreading rumors of others for the sake of either "likes" or "retweets". Another example of bad internet citizenship would also be the spread of false news or gossip and causing an uproar that directly puts groups of people in danger.