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Social Media Literacies





This week I explored Howard Rheingold’s five media literacies. Howard Rheingold defined the five social media literacies necessary to be empowered in digital skills and information literacies. He said the most important fluency is in putting all five of the literacies together. The social media literacies are Attention, Participation, Collaboration, Network Awareness, and Critical Consumption. Many people do not realize that being social on the internet means a person has to have technological skills and literacy in order to effectively socialize through social media.
Social media is a delusion and it has made users shallow and more inattentive.

The social media literacies will help users to become more mindful and encourage critical thinking. People treat information online as fact, but in reality, it conflicts with objective evidence. I think that social media literacy teaches us how to perceive or recognize the credibility of information. It is important to exercise, learn, and embrace all five literacies of Attention, Participation, Collaboration, Network Awareness, and Critical Consumption in order to successfully be a part of the network society.

I believe all of Rheingold’s social media literacies are essential to students, interconnect, and will ensure a healthy digital life. However, If I had to choose a particular literacy tool for myself, critical consumption (crap detection) would be the most essential tool for me because it disposes of untrustworthy sites and users. I have serious trust issues with the worldwide web, and I must weed out sites that are meant to expose me or my reputation.

Although Rheingold’s article was written over a decade ago, I do feel it can still be used in many aspects of everyday life. In everything, there’s always room for improvement. As we’ve become more sophisticated in how we use the internet, we also need to adjust how we use it.


http://www.jaycrook.com/jay/masters/Howard%20Rheingold.pdf

Rheingold, H. (n.d.). Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies

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  1. Sophie is SpeakingMarch 3, 2020 at 1:20 PM

    I also picked critical consumption as the most important literacy tool. Media tries to manipulate its users for whatever purpose they might have. We need to teach our children to be smarter then the media, to not let media spread fake news or manipulate their wants and thoughts.

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  2. Library DivaMarch 3, 2020 at 1:28 PM

    I agree with you when you stated, "Social media is a delusion and it has made users shallow and more inattentive". Users tend to take what they see as reality just because they see it even though it may lack value or credibility. I believe that the sooner you teach and empower users to be critical thinkers of information the better off our social and media culture will be overall.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NMZumpanoMarch 4, 2020 at 12:09 PM

    Thanks for the reflective post Ashanta.

    ReplyDelete

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