According to Ribble & Bailey (2012), a good digital citizen is literate, polite, law-abiding, respectful of others’ rights, and caring about the health, wellness, and security of other digital citizens; in short, “digital citizenship can be described as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use” (10). Greenhow (2010) refers to the NET●S definition of the digital citizen as someone who demonstrates “legal, ethical, safe, and responsible uses of information and communication technologies” (24). Ohler (2012) believes digital citizens should act virtuously (33). For Ivester (2012), good behavior alone is not enough; a digital citizen addresses rude conduct online while modeling “ethical online behavior” (113).
Digital citizenship requires a sense of responsibility to self and community. A good digital citizen is a conscious content creator (Ivester, 25) who balances personal rights with the common good of the online community (Ohler, 33 and Ivester, 53). A good digital citizen questions the validity of existing online content, evaluating sources in order to educate him/herself (Ivester, 40). As in the physical world, a good citizen in the digital realm considers how his/her actions affect others before taking action and he/cares about causing positive outcomes for the entire community.
A good digital citizen feels connected to his/her digital communities (Ohler, 36) and actively participates in those communities. Discussing and debating political, social, and cultural issues (Greenhow, 24) are some ways digital citizens participate in digital communities that are essentially the same way people participate in ‘real’ world communities. Ohler suggests that internet-based volunteering, campaigning, and/or lobbying activities can provide opportunities for citizens to participate online in their ‘real’ world communities (24).
After considering these many concepts of what makes a good digital citizen, I believe that a good digital citizen acts upon an understanding that anything he/she does online could potentially affect millions of other digital citizens and the good digital citizen is careful to act online only when their actions will have either a neutral or a positive impact on the digital community. Additionally, as in the ‘real’ world, a good digital citizen does not stand idly by when another citizen behaves inappropriately or illegally. A good digital citizen takes responsibility for the well-being of the online community by addressing negative behaviors using the process agreed upon by the community members. A good digital citizen intelligently, responsibly, and carefully participates in the digital world, balancing his/her personal freedom with the safety of the entire community.
References
Greenhow, C. (2010, March/April). A new concept of citizenship for the digital age. Learning
and Leading with Technology, 37(6), pp. 22-25.
Ivester, M. (2012) lol… OMG: what every student needs to know about online reputation
management, digital citizenship, and cyberbullying. (high school edition). Serra Knight Publishing. Reno, NV. ISBN 978-1479332564 (paperback).
Ohler, Jason. (2010). Digital Community, Digital Citizen. SAGE Publications. ISBN-13:
9781412971447.
Ribble, M. & Bailey, G. (2007). Chapter One: Understanding Digital Citizenship. Found in
Digital Citizenship in Schools. International Society for Technology in Education.
Washington, D.C. ISBN: 9781564842329.