Bryan Alexander on Bonni Stachowiak’s podcast (https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/digital-literacy-now/) says that in order to have digital literacy we have to have a good “BS detector” and that digital literacy is participatory and productive. I think there are two sides to digital literacy: the intake side and the output side. As Bryan described, you need to have a good “BS detector”. This is required if you want to be digitally literate in a world where there is fake news and clickbait abounds. You need to have wisdom in what you intake and what you believe as fact. The open web is amazing, but the downside of that is that anyone can put anything online. It doesn’t have to be true or even right. The second side to digital literacy is the output side. This is where you contribute online. It could be anything from a Tweet to a Facebook post to a blog to your company website. The possibilities are endless. In order to be able to contribute, there is a certain technical skillset that is required. When an individual has both the ability to critically think about the content they intake and the skills and discernemt to participate online they are well on their way to being digitally literate.

I think the discernment piece of participating online is key to digital literacy. As the example in the “Digital Literacy” activity showed, posting the wrong thing online can be detrimental to your career. I have been in ministry for almost 6 years. Being in ministry I am acutely aware that my online presence is important. My personal response to it has been essentially to not post anything online. While I know that living in the digital age is important, I don’t feel the need to post about everything I do online. I publish a newsletter once every 3-4 months which I share to my social media networks, and occasionally I post an article or a Ted Talk, but beyond that I have a fairly minimal online presence. In part this has also been because I am aware that I have many people on my social media networks from all different backgrounds. I have never been one to shy away from a discussion, however, I do not think that controversial discussions are best had online. As an example, I have a friend who was also in full time ministry. She commented on a post on Facebook regarding a rather controversial issue in Christian circles. Her financially supporting church saw her post and told her that if she did not publicly recant her statement they would no longer support her. She did not want to lie, and did not think that recanting her original post was honest, so she lost this financial support. This could have been avoided if she had not posted something seen as controversial.

For me personally having a minimal, professional only online presence has been the approach I have taken. I could have more of a presence online, however, I do not see the personal benefit. The people I have personal relationship with know me, they have ways to contact me, and beyond that, a professional presence is the only real need I have.