The Next Generation of Citizens
Among the advancements of the past few decades, it is in my humble opinion that the internet is one of the most important. It is hard to imagine a world without it. According to the International Telecommunications Union, in just a little over 20 years almost half of the global population has access to the internet, with about 80% of citizens in developed nations with access to Wi-Fi.
From Memex to the current juggernaut that it is today, the internet has changed what “the world” means. It isn’t simply about the physical planet, but also being able to interact across the globe instantly, the disappearance of distance and the democratization of information. Especially with smartphones being so ubiquitous (with 4 out of 5 adults owning a smartphone in the UK), the world truly is at your fingertips. As the Y2K bug panic showed, modern society is nothing without the power of computers. But as society changes around us, what it means to be an individual does too.
GEN 1.0 — ROCKY START
My parents grew up in 1970’s China. Back then, it was incredibly poor and the citizens had to get by on what they had. They lived in a completely analogue world: they did not own a home telephone or television, with only had a small radio for news and entertainment. In fact, my dad had to go out of his way to call my mother on a payphone outside of his university. It was not until their adulthood that computers started seeing use, and even then it was mostly because my dad studied to become a computer engineer. Its hard to imagine now that China has 800 million active internet users.
To them, the internet and all of its potential is relatively new, and they feel like they’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do for them. Their interaction with the web has mostly been limited to news streams, Chinese social media app WeChat, checking work emails, and streaming TV shows. Their view is that the internet is a tool to be used to facilitate daily life, and nothing more. The concept of social media is still strange to them, as my mom does not share anything in the “Moments” feature of WeChat besides showing off her cooking.
For my parents, being an individual is not tied down to an online profile. Instead, it is simply a window into a much deeper offline life. There is no such thing as a “digital citizen”.
GEN 3.0 — THE NATURAL
My little brothers, on the other hand, grew up with computers and smartphones around them all the time. My younger brother Zhao is 12 years old, while the youngest Liang is 6 years old. They cannot remember a period of their life without a computer in the house, or without some manner of accessing the internet easily. They are what is known as digital natives, ones who grew up with the internet as a constant, as much a part of their life as school, friends, and family.
I fear that because of this, and their young age, that they are going to grow up without a healthy boundary between the online world and the real world. It is no secret that young children are particularly vulnerable to advertising and their effects, with the American Psychology Association specifying that children under the age of 8 “lack the cognitive development to understand the persuasive intent of television advertising”. Knowing this, I am somewhat worried about what they consume online. I remember a few years back when they would be watching toy review channels on YouTube, completely ignoring the fact that most of their content is sponsored by the company manufacturing the product. They did not see a glorified advertisement, but rather kids and their parents having fun. Clearly, this is shared among many other kids, as evidenced by channels such as Ryan Toys Review gaining around 20 million views per day.
Not only that, I find it hard to approach the subject of internet privacy with such a young mind. I forbade them from using Facebook a few years ago because I knew about the highly targeted ads that it was capable of. Jump to the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018, and I was thankful that my little brothers’ private information was not harvested. However, explaining the nuances to them has proven difficult. They are still far too young to have a full grasp on the ethics of privacy, and how companies mine their data.
My guess is that for them, their life is the one that they lead online. Many fans of YouTubers don’t see them as an idol or celebrity, but rather as a friend that they relate to. This is despite that fact that numerous YouTubers have stated that the lives they show on camera are highly edited version of themselves. Perhaps because of their young age, I fear that they have no awareness of this fact and treat the internet as another form of self-expression, another part of who they are instead of just a separate platform. The individual is what you show to other people online, which is a toxic outlook to have when many of the perfect Instagram lives are staged or fake.
To Zhao and Liang, a digital citizen is synonymous to who you are.
GEN 2.0 — THE TRANSITION AND REFLECTION
Standing between the generations of my parents, and the newer generation, I can sense that I have a far different view living in a digital society. I remember I only truly started to use the computer when I was eight, and that I discovered social media when I was twelve. I am a digital native, and I adore the landscape that the internet has created. However, the information I choose to show online is very limited and carefully selected.
I do admit, I was much more active and vocal in sharing my edgy thoughts online when I was a teenager. This, of course, resulted in many embarrassing moments and opinions that I have mercifully deleted. It was only after I calmed down that I realized how easy it was to lay yourself bare in an online setting, sharing sensitive information to potentially thousands of strangers, forever. This can have dire consequences, as James Gunn can relate to when he was fired from Disney after offensive tweets from years ago surfaced.
Like it or not, a good public image is important for a career, and my online space is what many recruiters will look at first. I remember that an academic adviser told me once that a student was refused a job at a prestigious firm not because of their grade, but because their LinkedIn profile picture included a glass of wine. According to Carreer Builder, up to 70% of recruiters screen social media pages before making a decision. Even with an account set to private, there are ways to see what someone has posted online. Even now, many journalists are deleting tweets that they made years ago to protect themselves. But people change with time, and views are fluid. A post from a decade ago does not actively represent the individual now. However this is of little concern for the masses of the internet and for companies protecting their image.
Going into this course, I was confident in myself and in my knowledge of what digital society is, and what a responsible digital citizen is. However, perhaps the Dunning-Kruger effect was at play, and I was a bit too confident in my abilities. I was too cynical about data collection, even as a business student, seeing it as nothing more than a way for companies to profit off of my private information. However, after learning that Smart Cities improve with more and more data gathered, and that it can have practical uses that benefits everyone was eye-opening. Instead, now I feel that a responsible outlook on the treatment of data is one where it’s usage is beneficial to all, not just a small group.
For me now, an individual in a modern digital society is not only about who you are offline, but who you are online as well. Actions that are made online have an impact in day to day lives, be it job safety or improvement of efficiencies.
By being part of the digital society, I find myself with the responsibility of leaving an example for future generations, and teaching the older generation to adapt and succeed in the new environment. To be ethical and considerate in my actions online, and to respect privacy when it is violated.
