In a review by Nes et al. (2021), they found that technological literacy in education has been lacking and recommends there be an increase in bringing about stronger competencies in digital literacy for both educators and educational institutions. In an age of click-bait and misinformation, our opinion gets muddled and taken as truth, and driving it home are digital echo chambers, as brought up in our forum 1 discussion. Echo chambers are found to exist in different forms of social media platforms and have been described to drive an entire group with similar opinions to more extreme positions (Cinelli et al., 2021). In the cases of Gab, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter, echo chambers have been reflected to dominate online dynamics (Cinelli et al., 2021). It becomes increasingly important that as nursing professionals, we become digitally literate and understand our social responsibility in our digital practices associated to our digital identity, especially considering how easily our personal and professional lives can intersect.

This eBook by Cheryll Brown is available to read through and is relevant to this week’s Open Our Minds learning activity. It puts you in a “learning perspective” seat regarding digital literacy and encourages you to reflect on your digital footprints, how digital literacy has evolved over the years and stresses its importance in order to become a digital citizen, and prompts you to explore your digital identity. What I found resonated with me was the call to action - to become a digital citizen. As a nursing professional, there are socially responsible digital practices that I need to continue to be open about in learning and mindful about when I engage in digital practices in my personal, work, and learning (like in this forum discussion) life. It covers terms like positionality, critical digital literacies, and topics like being a digital participant online and how that maps along the “Visitor and Resident map” which can show your digital identity engagement (White, 2013). 

In regards to nursing professionalism on social media use, keeping your personal and professional online life separate becomes one way of upholding your profession and remaining accountable to the nursing profession and the public (INRC, 2016). 

References

Brown, C. (n.d.). Chapter 1: Introduction to digital literacy. In M. Schwartz (Eds.), Digital Citizenship Toolkit [eBook]. Ryerson University. https://pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca/digcit/chapter/chapter-1/

Cinelli, M., Morales, G.D.F., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. PNAS, 118(9): p. 1-8.

International Nurse Regulators Collaborative [INRC]. (2016, Dec). Social media use: Common expectations for nurses. https://www.cno.org/globalassets/docs/prac/incr-social-media-use-common-expectations-for-nurses.pdf

Nes, A.A.G., Steindal, S.A., Larsen, M.H., Heer, H.C., Laerum-Onsager, E., & Gjevjon, E.R. (2021). Technological literacy in nursing education: A scoping review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 37(2): p. 320-332.

White, D. (2013, Sept 13). Just the mapping. [Video] Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSK1Iw1XtwQ