5/30/16 · Institutional

How to be a good digital citizen

We are all digital citizens from the moment that we coexist permanently with the new digital technologies and social media networks. But do we know how to behave appropriately in this digital society? Are we good digital citizens? Today, our digital identity is so important that we can be turned down for a job because of our digital profile. In fact, 30% of companies reject candidates based on their internet profile.
30% of companies reject candidates based on their internet profile.

30% of companies reject candidates based on their internet profile.

For Teresa Romeu, professor at the UOC and expert in digital capacity-building, "it is important to be public-spirited, polite, honest, sociable, responsible, modest, flexible, appreciative, respectful of yourself and others, supportive, transparent...". Moreover, "we must understand internet tools and use our own judgement".

Taking care of our image, especially when looking for work
Romeu warns that "our digital identity is our permanent curriculum, updated and available to everyone". Therefore, Human Resources personnel have moved the search for people to the internet. Today, 80% of job offers are only published online. Thus there is a new figure who searches for professional talent on the internet, the nethunter, "who gathers as much information as possible in a more plural and cross-cutting way", explains Romeu.

Understanding the new digital channels
"The most important thing," says the UOC professor, "is to understand the networks we want to use in order to use them properly." Only in this way will we keep in mind what we do and say.

Do not only seek "likes"
The ease with which we can publish photos and all kinds of information and the eagerness to attract more "likes" means that we lose "awareness of reality" and that "we provide more information than we should", warns Romeu.

Watch out for possible disputes
What should we do if people talk about us badly and in public? According to the expert, we should first define the level of offence but, in any case, "we cannot use the net as a battleground whether we're right or wrong". To protect our rights, we can always turn to the law.

Use privacy measures
Many users forget to apply privacy and security measures on the networks and, according to Romeu, this is a "necessary" step. She advises "going over the individual privacy settings on the social networks, deactivating the tag suggestions and eliminating photo tags published by others, using the alert service, always consulting the terms and conditions of the service or platform to protect ourselves and, before publishing, reflecting on the impact the information will have".

A summer rich in foods, languages, tourism, art...

All these issues are explored more widely in the Digital Attitude summer course, which runs from 29 June to 30 July, together with another 96 courses provided by the UOC Summer Open University. They are short courses (25 hours) covering 14 different fields.

 

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