The influence of technology on current society has been a popular topic of discussion for decades. It seems that since the inception of technology, people are consistently discussing the effect and influence of technology of people and therefore society overall. Key findings from the Digital 2020 study highlight how people are becoming more focused on their mental well being and self-care by aiming to create healthy relationships with technology and social media. This is a promising sign in today’s society as previously young people were continuously comparing their lives to the lives of ‘influencers’ on social media sites such as Instagram and YouTube and sacrificing their mental well being in the process. Another key finding from the Digital 2020 report is despite taking a ‘self-care’ approach in terms of mental well being, people are becoming more ‘reality anxious’ which describes the phenomenon of people struggling to find reliable and reputable sources of information. This reality anxiety is clearly demonstrated through the creation of ‘deepfakes’ which uses artificial intelligence to superimpose faces and voices over video and audio. This has obvious implications from a social as well as political perspective and people must be able to develop the digital literacy to discern if sources of information is reputable. This reality anxiety then ties into the concern of misuse of personal data, which is a concern expressed by most countries with over 50% of internet users stressing data misuse as a great concern. These key findings are particularly pertinent as Australian internet users have increased by 1.2% as well as social media users increased by 4.3% (Kemp, 2020).
The key findings and data discussed above is highly relevant to Australian primary schools and the libraries within those schools. As educators, one of the key priorities is to ensure the safety and well being of our students. As Teacher Librarians are often considered the technology providers and conduits in a primary school, it is their responsibility to ensure students are interacting healthily with the internet and social media. A key responsibility of the Teacher Librarian also involves educating students on how to find reliable and reputable sources and developing the skills to discern this for themselves. As children become younger and younger when they are first exposed to the internet and social media, it is inevitable that the school library will become the hub of responsible technology use for young children. As noted by EDUCAUSE, there exists a high demand for digital learning experiences in higher education (EDUCAUSE, 2019) and this demand is also mirrored in primary schools. This is reflected in primary schools already adopting augmented reality as well as gamification of Key Learning Areas.
References:
EDUCAUSE. (2019). EDUCAUSE Horizon report: 2019 higher education report. EDUCAUSE. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2019/4/2019horizonreport.pdf?la=en&hash=C8E8D444AF372E705FA1BF9D4FF0DD4CC6F0FDD1
Kemp, S. (2020). Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media. We Are Social. https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media.
