A media guru shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely,
and, above all, mindfully.
Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being
overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to
personal success in the twenty-first century. But how can we use digital
media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive
receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking basket
cases? In Net Smart, cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold shows us how
to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully.
Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing,
cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time.
Rheingold outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills
that will help us do this: attention, participation, collaboration,
critical consumption of information (or crap detection), and network
smarts. He explains how attention works, and how we can use our
attention to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami
of information. He describes the quality of participation that empowers
the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online community
participants; he examines how successful online collaborative
enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways; and he
teaches us a lesson on networks and network building.
Rheingold points out that there is a bigger social issue at work in
digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we
combine our individual efforts wisely, it could produce a more
thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or
sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.
