identity in a digital world
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Alec CourosJanuary 17, 2015TEDxLangley
Identity in a Digital World
Ghyslain Raza
“In July 2003, the student’s family filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the families of four of his schoolmates.
The lawsuit stated that he “had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and from the public at large.”
“You’ll survive. You’ll get through it. And you’re not alone. You are surrounded by
people who love you.”
Digital media contribute to once unimagined challenges for our (digital) identities.
The world has changed ...
1. The speed and ubiquity of social media complicate our ability to control our digital footprint, directly implicating our identities.
Easily Copied
Viewable by MillionsEasily Edited
Instantly Shared
by DEFAULT
with EFFORT
PRIVATE
PUBLIC
2. Our digital lives are no longer separate entities but instead have become integral to who we are.
“... we live in an augmented reality that exists at the intersection of materiality and information,
physicality and digitality, bodies and technology, atoms and bits, the off and the online. It is wrong
to say “IRL” to mean offline: Facebook is real life.”
“81% of children under two currently have some kind of digital dossier or footprint,
with images of them posted online.”
“...children reach the age of “social media maturity” at about age 11.”
In Canada, 34% of children have a digital footprint before they are born.
“Should we teach our children as though they have two lives, or one?”
3. The complexities of identity pose a serious threat to the well-being of our youth and there is
little being done systematically to educate students around these topics.
20% of kids who are cyberbullied think about suicide.10% of kids who are cyberbullied attempt suicide.
~ Cyberbullying Hotline
“Just because today’s students have grown up in a technology-rich world does not mean that they know
how to effectively and responsibly utilize technology. It is a common misconception that today’s learners can seamlessly transition from the routine use of devices
for personal reasons to using them for learning, research, and enhanced productivity. ”
~Eric Sheninger
“Within minutes, the image seemed to explode on the Internet. Soon a meme was born and the
hashtag #alexfromtarget became a trending topic. (Yet the dark side of this marvel, including death
threats against him and his family, would not become clear for several days to come.)”
What rights and responsibilities should we hold around the creation and distribution of media, especially when tied to the identity of others?
What are coping strategies when facets of our identity are lost beyond our control?
How do we discern truth from fiction in our fast-moving, often chaotic, information landscape?
What should we do about this?
1. Teach understanding through the curriculum of memes.
pushback
support
her defense
How does one cope in a world where judgement of our actions can be instantaneous, viral, and global?
What is the importance of context in the judgement of others? How do we act appropriately?
How is the ubiquity of mobile technology reshaping the norms around communication and expression?
2. Recognize that forgetting is no longer possible.
NYT, 1945
“The right to make mistakes.”
“The right to let childhood be forgotten.”
Promise of Ephemerality?
“...as all of us stumble over the challenges of living in a world without forgetting, we need to
learn new forms of empathy, new ways of defining ourselves without reference to what others say
about us and new ways of forgiving one another for the digital trails that will follow us forever.”
~Jeffrey Rosen
3. Model and cultivate positive online identities/relationships.
Think digital visitors and residents vs. digital natives and immigrants.
Final Thoughts
693
“We systematically overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other.” (Shirky, 2011)
How do we help our kids discover and experience the many emerging possibilities
for networked, human connection while allowing them to safely grow and shape their
identities, and the identities of others?
http://[email protected]
@courosa
Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born
in another time. ~Tagore