Digital Citizenship - Article Example

Digital citizenship Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Citizenship and globalization has been a major issue in the current world. There have been laws and regulations which try to guide citizens in their behavior either at work places or during the transactions for business. Citizenship upholds the moral behaviors of individuals which improve integrity during transactions for instance when conducting business (Ribble et al 2004). Citizenship influences globalization in that when there is transparency in any transaction, many people will be encouraged to invest in foreign countries. Citizenship further improves the environment for conducting businesses, exchanging ideas and sharing social benefits across borders leading to globalization. When there is no good citizenship, people will not share economic, social and political issues together because there are no moral behaviors guiding the behavior of citizens (Ribble 2006). Due to globalization, many countries are contemplating to uphold their citizenship so that they can fit in the global business environment and this is the main reason why there is reason to consider the impacts of various dimensions of citizenship. In this regard, this paper aims at finding out the impact of digital citizenship as a dimension of citizenship and globalization on the national citizenship. According to the research which has been done, it can be argued that digital citizenship impacts a lot on the national citizenship. However there are those who argue that digital citizenship do not influence national citizenship directly. This paper will discuss both sides of the arguments. Impact of digital citizenship on national citizenship Digital citizenship is the application of modern technology for instance the internet sources of information by observing all the rules and regulations of the internet. Digital citizenship has led to social interaction among the citizens of different backgrounds (Ribble 2006). By observing the rules of the internet sources of information, the citizens find it easier to socialize with different people without any constraints. For instance there are websites which are designed for socialization like the twitter although it has the rules and regulations to be followed. By adhering to these laws and regulations, an individual can be able to uphold the national integrity as well by observing the laws of the country leading to national citizenship. Digital citizenship further enables the citizens to access the data digitally. Through the digital citizenship, an individual can access more information especially the disabled people (Couros 2007). The physically disabled people may not access the physical facilities for learning but with the application of digital citizenship, the individual will be able to access the data online over the internet. This promotes the national citizenship by enabling an individual to access information which is his or her right thus an individual will exercise his rights and be informed on the current affairs of the country. Digital citizenship further improves the commerce among the citizens. Business operations are improved through the application of digital citizenship by identifying the illegal business using software which can identify the business which is illegal. Through the internet, most of the business transactions can be monitored and in any case there is illegal business, it can be easily identified and the culprit can face the law for engaging in illegal activities. This helps to improve the national citizenship because the business operations are monitored which helps to eliminate illegal business thus upholding the national laws of integrity. Digital citizenship helps to improve communication among citizens by applying better means of communicating. Individuals exchange ideas with people from different backgrounds and learn to appreciate the values of other people (Couros 2007). Digital citizenship upholds the rights of individuals to socialize and exchange information which helps to improve the application of the national laws for instance the right to interact with others. Through communication, citizens will exchange ideas and in the process will learn to be honest thus improving the virtue of integrity which helps to uphold the national citizenship. Furthermore, digital citizenship improves the literacy of people by learning how to apply the modern technology and how. When the citizens are aware and know how to use the digital technology, they will be able to acquire skills to evaluate the sources of the internet and accept information which is valid and from a valid source (Couldry 2007). Through this practice, the citizens will able to make informed decisions which will mould the moral behaviors. For instance not all the digital sources of information can be valid meaning that some other information can be misleading and can influence the conduct of citizens negatively. This will enable citizens to post reliable data on the internet improving the conduct of individuals towards national citizenship. Digital citizenship enables individuals to maintain the legal rights and regulations set by a country that restricts the digital sources of information. Among the laws of any country is to protect the property knowledge of individuals (Couldry 2007). In this regard, there are laws which protect individuals and their work from copyrights and piracy. Through these regulations, individuals learn how to rely on their own work and not other people’s work which in turn promotes moral behaviors among individuals. In this aspect, the national citizenship is upheld as a result of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship further helps citizens to exercise their rights and duties. Through the digital citizenship, citizens learn to be independent and honest with their duties (Leighninger 2011). The internet sources of information promote honest among citizens because information taken the internet can be easily detected and the student can be heavily punished according to the laws of plagiarism. In this regard, the students learn to be honest and abandon vices like cheating and this promotes and improves the national citizenship. On the same note, the digital sources improve the safety of works done by other people from being exhausted. Digital citizenship promotes privacy of a country’s or organizations confidential data. The internet technology provides software which keeps confidential data for the company or organization (Moll & Krug 2008). Due to the competition in the business market, there is need to keep some information private so that it cannot be used by competitors to gain advantage and excel in the market. In this regard, the digital citizenship helps individuals to keep some information private and therefore the country’s or organizations’ private data cannot be accessed by the rivals thus upholding the national citizenship. Digital citizenship enhances learning through acquiring of skills and knowledge. Through the internet sources, the citizens are able to learn from each other the skills that are important in leadership (Richards 2010). These leadership skills are crucial when upholding the national citizenship because they enable individuals to learn new moral skills. In addition, through the internet sources individuals can learn how other people from other countries upholds their national citizenship and in the process they can cope or emulate the characters which have better improved the national citizenship morals. Therefore as a result of the internet sources of information individuals can learn to uphold and practice national citizenship. Through digital citizenship, individuals are able to learn from each other communities the various issues and their culture which may be different from their own culture (Clarke 1996). Citizens learn how various cultures developed through the digital sources and can appreciate that all cultures are superior and that there is no culture which more preferred than the other. Through this acknowledgement of other communities’ culture, national citizenship will be practiced because citizens learn to appreciate other cultures thus they develop a positive attitude towards each other and can live in harmony. Finally, through digital citizenship enables the government to communicate the moral principles that should be observed by the citizens (Couldry 2007). The internet has become a major communication channel in the modern society. Through this channel, the government will be able to able to reach out citizens and update them on their rights and duties as well as the obligations. Not only will the government use the internet to create awareness of the rights of individuals but also the non governmental organizations to communicate with citizens. In this regard, the individuals will learn to uphold and maintain the national citizenship because they are informed. However, on the other hand there are those scholars who belief that through digital citizenship does not in any way influence the national citizenship. To begin with, it is argued that to be a good citizen, one has to learn the good values in educational institutions (Cabrera 2010). They argue that national citizenship starts with students from educational forums. From these forums the individuals are taught how they will live to become responsible citizens and not through digital citizenship which may not influence the behavior of an individual. They further argue that national citizenship is upheld and implemented by the constitutions of the country. The constitution constitutes laws and regulations that should be abided by all citizens within the territorial boundaries (Clarke 1996). The citizens are forced to abide by the laws which comprise the moral behaviors citizens should observe and in the process they develop good moral conduct leading to national citizenship. The constitution protects the rights and obligations of all individuals and anybody breaking breaching the rule of law will be sued for the misconduct and will be charged in the court of law. Furthermore, they argue that national citizenship is as a result of the values which are in born with individuals. Different citizens are born with different personalities and these personalities lead to responsible citizens. Through these inborn values, a citizen does not need to access the digital sources to develop national citizenship instead the citizen just behaves in good moral conduct without being taught or forced to learn the citizenship. In this regard, they argue that national citizenship is influenced by the inborn characters of individuals. On the other hand, national citizenship is most influenced the cultures of the citizens. Citizens come from different backgrounds of cultures with different moral demands (Parekh 2003). Some cultures teach people to live responsibly in the society by observing the norms of the society. Through these societal norms and beliefs, the citizens learn to be responsible in the society by observing the rights and freedoms of other individuals and this leads to the promotion of the national citizenship therefore national citizenship can be promoted by the different cultural practices in the country which do not regard the impacts of digital citizenship. They also argue that national citizenship cannot be influenced by digital citizenship because not all people access the digital sources (Cabrera 2010). Through this argument, they suggest that national citizenship can be upheld in the religious institutions where the individuals are taught moral values and how they should learn to behave responsibly in the society. Therefore they conclude that national citizenship is not influenced by digital citizenship rather by the religious backgrounds of the individuals where they are taught how to uphold moral values. Conclusion Digital citizenship is the ability to use the internet sources of information without violating the laws of accessing the internet. National citizenship is the behavior or the conduct of citizens to become responsible in their actions, be informed, know their rights and understand their duties and responsibilities. Digital citizenship has many impacts in the national citizenship. To begin with it enables the internet users to uphold the laws of the internet, enables individual with disability to access data which is their right, it improves trade which enables people to learn to associate with one another, improves communication among people and learn to appreciate other cultures and finally it helps the constitutional organizations to communicate the moral conduct to the citizens (Cabrera 2010). On the other hand those argue that digital citizenship does not affect the national citizenship say that national citizenship can be learnt through learning institutions, through cultural practices, through the constitutions and through religious backgrounds. References Cabrera, L 2010, The Practice of Global Citizenship, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Clarke, P 1996, Deep Citizenship, Pluto Press, London. Couros, A 2007, "Understanding Digital Citizenship." Open Thinking, retrieved on 10th June, 2013 at . Couldry, N 2007, New media for global citizens? The future of the digital divide debate. Brown Journal of Art & Design Education, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 261-268. Leighninger, M 2011, Citizenship and governance in a wild, wired world: How should citizens and public managers use online tools to improve democracy? National Civic Review, Vol. 100, No. 2, pp. 20-29. Moll, R & Krug, D 2008, Using web 2.0 programs on global citizenship: addressing moral and ethical issues, Journal of network management, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 107-115. Parekh, B 2003, "Cosmopolitanism and Global Citizenship", Review of International Studies, Vol 29, No 1, pp. 3-17. Ribble, M., Bailey, G & Ross, T 2004, Digital citizenship: Addressing appropriate technology behavior, International Association of School Librarianship. Ribble, M 2006, Implementing digital citizenship in schools: The research, development and validation of a technology leader's guide, Kansas State University, United States - Kansas. Richards, R 2010, Digital citizenship and web 2.0 tools, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 119-130. Read More

Digital citizenship further improves the commerce among the citizens. Business operations are improved through the application of digital citizenship by identifying the illegal business using software which can identify the business which is illegal. Through the internet, most of the business transactions can be monitored and in any case there is illegal business, it can be easily identified and the culprit can face the law for engaging in illegal activities. This helps to improve the national citizenship because the business operations are monitored which helps to eliminate illegal business thus upholding the national laws of integrity.

Digital citizenship helps to improve communication among citizens by applying better means of communicating. Individuals exchange ideas with people from different backgrounds and learn to appreciate the values of other people (Couros 2007). Digital citizenship upholds the rights of individuals to socialize and exchange information which helps to improve the application of the national laws for instance the right to interact with others. Through communication, citizens will exchange ideas and in the process will learn to be honest thus improving the virtue of integrity which helps to uphold the national citizenship.

Furthermore, digital citizenship improves the literacy of people by learning how to apply the modern technology and how. When the citizens are aware and know how to use the digital technology, they will be able to acquire skills to evaluate the sources of the internet and accept information which is valid and from a valid source (Couldry 2007). Through this practice, the citizens will able to make informed decisions which will mould the moral behaviors. For instance not all the digital sources of information can be valid meaning that some other information can be misleading and can influence the conduct of citizens negatively.

This will enable citizens to post reliable data on the internet improving the conduct of individuals towards national citizenship. Digital citizenship enables individuals to maintain the legal rights and regulations set by a country that restricts the digital sources of information. Among the laws of any country is to protect the property knowledge of individuals (Couldry 2007). In this regard, there are laws which protect individuals and their work from copyrights and piracy. Through these regulations, individuals learn how to rely on their own work and not other people’s work which in turn promotes moral behaviors among individuals.

In this aspect, the national citizenship is upheld as a result of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship further helps citizens to exercise their rights and duties. Through the digital citizenship, citizens learn to be independent and honest with their duties (Leighninger 2011). The internet sources of information promote honest among citizens because information taken the internet can be easily detected and the student can be heavily punished according to the laws of plagiarism. In this regard, the students learn to be honest and abandon vices like cheating and this promotes and improves the national citizenship.

On the same note, the digital sources improve the safety of works done by other people from being exhausted. Digital citizenship promotes privacy of a country’s or organizations confidential data. The internet technology provides software which keeps confidential data for the company or organization (Moll & Krug 2008). Due to the competition in the business market, there is need to keep some information private so that it cannot be used by competitors to gain advantage and excel in the market.

In this regard, the digital citizenship helps individuals to keep some information private and therefore the country’s or organizations’ private data cannot be accessed by the rivals thus upholding the national citizenship. Digital citizenship enhances learning through acquiring of skills and knowledge. Through the internet sources, the citizens are able to learn from each other the skills that are important in leadership (Richards 2010).

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