The Importance of Adolescents Critically Using Digital Media

American adolescents are now exposed to digital media and technology more than ever before. These developing technologies have many benefits, both in the classroom and outside of school walls, as adolescents are becoming increasingly connected via the internet. Although digital media has the opportunity to be advantageous to all users, there has recently been a movement with educators calling for skills that aid in critical analyzation of texts presented in the media be taught to school-aged learners. With incorrect or biased information constantly floating around the internet, present on webpages including social media or news websites, it is imperative that adolescents be literate in the critical and careful use of digital media. Being critically literate with today’s media entails having the ability to analyze information and infer that certain stories in the media may not be completely true. In order to sift through the many problems that may arise from modern news sources, educators must teach adolescents about critical literacy where they feel comfortable, whether this be on their smartphones surfing social media sites or browsing through celebrity news websites. Echo chambers, confirmation bias, and blind certainty are all examples of how one can be fooled into believing false information, but with the use of critical literacy, adolescents will be able to better filter through biases and false information in the media.

Julie Warner states that critical literacy is centered around “the ways that . . . framework promotes active analysis to uncover structures of power can be applied to interrogate . . . physical spaces and texts involved with literacy but also digital spaces and texts” (Warner, 2017, pg. 145). It is vital that adolescents be able to recognize the ever-present power structures in modern society. Schools are just one example of a power structure that adolescents are exposed to on a consistent basis and it is imperative that students be able to recognize that they too have the ability to have a presence in digital spaces. Because digital spaces “have different structures for user control, and exist within particular contexts . . . [digital] spaces offer different affordances for agentic action” (Warner, 2017, pg. 154). These power structures like schools have the ability to influence the way many groups of societies think and function, ultimately leading to echo chambers, blind certainty, and confirmation bias in many digital media users. Echo chambers and confirmation bias are very similar and can be described as the propensity to look for and give attention to information that agrees with your own opinions or preconceived notions, while often turning away from opinions or facts that do not align with your own beliefs. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter often add to confirmation bias and echo chambers as users are most often “friends” with or “follow” those who have similar opinions as they do, leading to text with information or propaganda that aligns with your own political opinions on your social media feeds. Researcher Laura Gurak is noted in David Buckingham’s article entitled “Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the internet” as she highlights the necessity for adolescents to not only know how to “use a computer and keyboard” (Buckingham, 2007, 47), but also knowing how the internet and technology have been “socially shaped in particular ways” (Buckingham, 2007, 47). Therefore, it is important that young people have the ability to both “understand and make informed judgements about the place of technology within society and culture” (Buckingham, 2007, 47). The only way for adolescents to learn about critical evaluation of various texts available via technology is for adolescents to be presently and actively involved in this media.

Undoubtedly, it is vital that adolescents be aware of confirmation bias, blind certainty, and echo chambers. While there has been research indicating that all people are affected by confirmation bias, studies are also showing a sexual double standard with confirmation bias. In many secondary schools today, far too many females have wrongly and inappropriately labeled, leading to “harassment and derogation that comes with that [sexualized and inappropriate label” (Marks & Fraley, 2006, pg. 20). This study clearly indicates harassment and bullying of young women in schools as there is a confirmation bias that “93% of [university aged] women agreed that women are judged more harshly than men” (Marks & Fraley, 2006, pg. 20) for their sexuality. Bullying is fundamentally wrong, but becomes more extreme with confirmation bias in the current society that often further shames and oppresses women. We must teach adolescents to be aware of these harmful examples of confirmation bias.

In conclusion, it is necessary that adolescents be aware of the ever-present falsities that are alive on the internet. While we, as educators, cannot rid the internet of bias and lies, we must teach our students how to be critically literate in a technologically geared society. Ann S. Beck, author of “Critical literacy in the classroom” explained it as giving our adolescent students the ability to think with “a critical literacy approach [which] is the use of dialogue as a tool with which students construct meaning from texts” (Beck, 2005, pg. 3). As adolescents learn to both evaluate media and construct their own identities online using various social media platforms, for example, teachers gain the ability to “promote classrooms that value student voices, experiences, and histories as a part of course content” (Beck, 2005, pg. 3). Once the adolescent voice is heard in the power structure of secondary schools, adolescents will gain the ability to read digital texts with a critical eye. This will allow young people to become more intent on finding texts that differ from their own world view, and eventually allow an escape from the echo chambers currently present in within social media and online websites.

Reference List

Required Readings

Buckingham, David. (2007). Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the internet. Research in Comparative and International Education, 2(1), 45–55.

Warner, Julie. (2017). Adolescents’ New Literacies with and through Mobile Phones. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 79, 144–159.

Outside Resources

Beck, Ann S. (2005). Critical literacy in the classroom. Thinking Classroom, 6(3), 3–9.

Marks, Michael J., & Fraley, R. Chris. (2006). Confirmation Bias and the Sexual Double Standard. Sex Roles, 54(1), 19–20.

[The Audiopoedia]. (2017, August 10). What is CRITICAL LITERACY? What does CRITICAL LITERACY mean? CRITICAL LITERACY meaning & explanation. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WyIkK9IOg.