What is Digital Literacy and Why is it Important?

The term literacy is a very common one, it simply means the ability to read and write. But when we add the word ‘Digital’ before it, it becomes a dynamic term that includes a lot of aspects and not simply reading and writing.

According to Cornell University, digital literacy may be defined as “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.” Digital literacy is more than just knowing how to use digital tools, it involves the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using digital technology.

The basic principles of reading and writing remain the same, but with ever-evolving technology, the dynamics of digital literacy keep changing. It involves a number of activities such as reading from digital sources, watching videos, and then creating new content such as articles, making videos, images, etc to further convey this knowledge.

Over the last few years, our world has become increasingly digitalized and this in turn requires us to also become digitally literate to be successful in this digitalized environment.

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In today’s world, it is a fundamental requirement to be digitally literate in order to progress in every field of life such as studies, jobs, or searching for jobs. Almost everything we do today requires us to be digitally literate. From surfing the internet to searching for jobs and then performing well in those jobs, everything requires us to be digitally literate.

Digital literacy overlaps with computer literacy. But it is a much more expansive term than computer literacy as it involves various digital media for learning like mobile phones, Ipads, tablets, etc, and not just personal computers.