Confronting Digital Divide, Digital Addiction, and Cyberbullying

Digital divide

          What is the digital divide? How can we strive against it? Who are the affected people in it? What
are the factors why did digital divide happen?

          

The digital divide is the gap between the people who have internet access and the people who don't
have internet access. Generally, the affected people in this situation are the people who don’t have any
internet access since they can’t afford to have access to the internet.

There are three main factors why the Digital Divide happens:

  Lack of Access due to affordability, 

 Lack of knowledge on how to use the technology 

 Lack of knowledge of the benefits of the technology. 

We can demote the digital divide by: 

  Reducing the cost of connecting internet in houses, 

 The government should make a law that the internet is accessible to all public places, 

 NGO and LGUs perpetrate a forum about the benefits and how to use new technology in rural
places.

 Government should provide some computers to schools, and it should be open to all students
for their needs.

Digital Addiction

                Digital addiction is the ineptness to control a person’s craving in using digital-age technology
like computers and smartphones. They can feel agitation when they are far from their mobile phones it’s
like they cannot live without those gadgets, and they can sway their daily work or routine in their lives.
Most teenagers and non-working people are the ones who are very affected.

              

        

We can prevent digital addiction by: 

 Set a limited time for computer and smartphone applications, 

 Make copies of the information you need, 

 Immerse yourself with outside activities like sports, hiking, and adventure, 

 Hang out with friends and plan some family night out, 

 Denigrate your technology usage, use only your smartphones and computer when you need it

 Set aside your smartphones, laptops, and computers for a while.

Cyberbullying

            
             Cyberbullying is repetitive threatening, harassing, sending mean messages, making fun of a
person, or intimidating a person using computers, social media, and smartphones; it is also the act of
bullying through the use of the internet and social networking sites with anonymity. 

      

Anyone can commit cyberbullying, but most teenagers are the ones who are very known in this
case. According to Sam laird’s published an article on Mashable Life 42% of teenagers with technology
access report being cyberbullied over the past year and 69% of teens that own their computer or
smartphone, 80% are active on social media. A simple message, a simple status, or a calling of names
can trigger a million emotions that can lead to stress then depression, and then death. 

         To prevent cyberbullying, we must: 

 Think positive, 

 Talked to a trusted person or an elder about your case, 

 Save some evidence that you were being cyberbullied, 

 Think before you post, 

 Set privacy controls in your account/s, 

 Log out your account on a public computer like an internet café (Protect your account), 

 Be a friend, not a bystander (Take some action), 

 Don’t retaliate.

Advocate Ethical use of Media and Information

           First let me define the word "ethical", according to Vocabulary.com dictionary, ethical means that
it describes a person's behavior as right in the moral sense - truthful, fair, and honest. Based on the
given definition, it only means that ethical use of media and information signifies the proper way/s and
behavior of a person when using media and gathering information. In my perspective, to reach our
pretension, when using media and gathering the information we should be media and information
literate people or individuals. A media and information literate individual can analyze, understand, and
critique media, objectively with respect for diversity among people and other things.

  

 Here are some proper behavior and way/s of person when using media and gathering information:

 A person shouldn't use another person's work or in a person should not plagiarize.

 They should know how to critique and appraise a media 

 In social media you should be careful of what you were posting and always remember "Think
before you click"

 In social media be careful of who you add up in your friends.

  Look for credible, authoritative sources.

 Look for consensus.

Opportunities and Challenges of Media and Information

       Opportunities and challenges these words we cannot only meet in real life but also can stumble in
the virtual world. In real life when we say opportunities many people would noble it without hesitation
and when we say challenges it would be a problem, we need to solve but in the virtual world, it is just
the same.

Opportunities:

 It can help the people to make their work easy and fast,

  They can gather information with a click of a hand,

  They can be updated in everyday news 

 They can connect people around the world.

 Businessmen can easily advertise their products.

 It can serve as a watchdog in our government

Challenges:

 Many people can misuse the purpose of the internet(like watching non-sense things like
pornography)

  Students lose focus on their studies because they have more time in playing video games.

 People can be invective to the internet.

 Copyright fraud

 Illegal content (like pornography)

 People become independent on the internet.

These are just some opportunities and challenges that we may meet in media and information. 
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