Bias, Trust and Digital Citizenship
Building digital citizenship involves understanding and addressing biases, particularly in the context of information consumption and decision-making.
- Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek information that supports our existing beliefs, rather than considering evidence that contradicts them.
- Access and Affordability Bias – Inequality in access to digital technologies, revealing that the availability of internet connection does not directly translate into affordability. This bias can be addressed by improving access to digital technologies, such as ensuring equitable access to internet connectivity, reducing the cost of internet-enabled devices, and making internet services more affordable globally.
- Skills Divide Bias – The skills divide is presenting a hurdle to digital equality. To overcome this bias, there is a need to focus on improving access to education and infrastructure, cultivating technical and critical skills, and addressing language barriers in digital education.
- Information Divide and Epistemic Wellbeing Bias – Information divides and misinformation online adversely impact epistemic wellbeing. To overcome this bias, it is crucial to promote access to trustworthy information sources, foster dialogue, and address the spread of falsehoods online.
- Urban-Rural Connectivity Bias – Disparity in internet connectivity between urban and rural areas, with urban areas receiving more focus from network service providers. To overcome this bias, there is a need to improve infrastructure investments in rural and remote areas, ensuring equitable access to connectivity for all regions.
- Device and Creation Bias – The limitations of mobile-only internet connectivity, particularly for creation and learning. Overcoming this bias involves ensuring access to computer devices, reducing the divide between mobile phone-only and computer-enabled internet access, and promoting opportunities for digital creation.
How to Overcome Digital Biases
To overcome digital biases, it is essential to:
- Improve access to digital technologies and internet connectivity, especially in underserved and rural areas.
- Reduce the cost of internet-enabled devices and make internet services more affordable globally.
- Address language barriers in digital education and promote multilingual content.
- Foster access to trustworthy information sources and combat misinformation and falsehoods online.
- Focus on improving access to education and infrastructure, cultivating technical and critical skills, and addressing skills and income divides.
- Ensure equitable access to digital technologies and promote opportunities for digital creation and learning.
These efforts will contribute to minimizing digital biases and fostering a more inclusive and equitable digital environment for all individuals and communities.
2: Christopher Ali, The Presumption of the Connected, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, 24 March 2020.
3: Emmanuel Martinez, How Many Americans Lack High-Speed Internet? The Markup, 26 March 2020.
4: Kenneth Boyd, The antidote to fake news is to nourish our epistemic wellbeing, Psyche, 27 January 2021.
5: Michael Grothaus, 5G means you’ll have to say goodbye to your location privacy, Fast Company, 1 March 2019.
To overcome confirmation bias and foster digital citizenship, strategies such as assuming that our opinions could be wrong, actively seeking evidence that challenges our beliefs, verifying information from reliable sources, and being open to changing our minds in the face of new evidence can be employed. By developing these strategies, individuals can make informed decisions and effectively navigate the vast amount of information available online, thus promoting digital literacy and responsible digital citizenship.