Leaving a Legacy as a Digital Citizen

Prior to this week's readings, I hadn't thought much about digital citizenship, as such. I thought about being smart about what I shared online and how I set my privacy settings, about treating people online with the same respect I would show them in person, but I had never attached a specific name to it. I really appreciated Garth Holman's framing of the topic as leaving an online legacy rather than focusing so much on the Internet as a dangerous place. Of course, there are predators and frauds out there who would love to take advantage of the unsuspecting web surfer, but they tend to target those who engage in activities that wouldn't fall under the definition of a legacy, so teaching students to construct a positive digital footprint is likely to also protect them, without drawing on the vivid picture of Internet Bogeymen to scare them straight.

See what happens when you talk to someone you don't know online!

My own negative experiences online have been fairly mild. The worst instance was when someone I would have preferred to shut out of my personal business created a MySpace account posing as someone I trusted so that I would accept the friend request and she would be able to see what I was posting on my account. I don't know if she expected to find me saying terrible things about her online, which I guess would have made her feel better about things she had done to me, but she was certainly disappointed if she did. I'm not one to call names in private, let alone in the forever world of the inter webs, regardless of what my privacy settings might be. The result was that the situation de-escalated. I quickly realized what was going on and quietly unfriended her, with basically no damage done. My commitment to keeping drama offline meant that even when someone tried to attack me, she had no ammunition. Basically, I was building a legacy, and it turns out legacies are pretty safe.

MySpace. Remember when that was a thing?

What I like best about this approach is that it seems like it could work even with students at the height of their invincibility complexes, by which I mean, it's easy for any of us, but especially young students, to think that Internet dangers will never happen to me. Other people might get cat-fished, but not me; someone else might get a virus from illegally downloading music, but not me; that person's ex shared intimate photos after they broke up, but my significant other would never do that to me. If fear of getting caught/hurt is what we're trying to use to motivate student behavior, then we need them to believe that getting caught/hurt is something that could realistically happen to them, but human nature says they probably won't. Legacy, on the other hand, just requires us to get students to buy in to the notion that they can have an actual impact on the world through their online presence and should therefore curate an overall positive image. That's still not an easy task, but if we craft assignments that focus on solving real world problems and share what we find in public spaces, we just might get the kind of feedback Holman describes, with famous people commenting on student videos, for instance, showing them in a positive way that the world is, in fact, watching. And student egos may prove easier to fan than their fears.

What could possibly go wrong?

When our focus is completely on protect, protect, protect, by limiting student access to the Internet or leaving technology out of our teaching equation entirely, then we are failing to model for our students how they ought to behave online. This "positive is better than negative" approach holds true in parenting, as well: I get much better responses from my children when I tell or show them what I want them to do, rather than just giving them a long list of what not to do. Legacy is about showing students what they can do, and do really well, online, which makes so much more sense to me and seems so much easier to introduce to younger kids than outlining all of the specific, often awkward-to -discuss dangers of an online environment.

Turns out if you use Creative Commons to search for "Chester the Molester," all you get is a picture of beloved comedian, Jim Gaffigan, so here's a stand-in for awkwardness.

I tested it out with my composition classes this week since we were discussing social media's impact on culture anyway, and my students seemed taken with the idea, either latching onto the term as describing what they are trying to do online, or nodding and commenting that they really ought to start doing that before they find themselves on the job market (Although some were still committed to stirring up drama online because, and I quote, "I just love gossip!" I guess we can't save them all.). At any rate, legacy is a tool I will definitely employ again in the future, so thank you Garth Holman! (I really wanted to link to his video, but Flash Player is being uncooperative so here's a link to his blog instead!)