Digital media may cultivate awareness and responsibility in users: a case for optimism

Like every other major communication technology, digital communication has its "potentialities" that eventually reshape culture, cognition, and social organization. They include, on the one hand, broad but superficial engagement, unreflective emotional reactions, and tribalism; on the other hand, they also include cosmopolitan attitudes and the expansion of our circle of care. Importantly, digital communication technology turns the user’s attention to the user’s own choices. This article argues that reflective engagement with digital media can promote awareness and responsibility. We propose that school curricula focus more on being aware of one's own choices, understanding cognitive biases, recognizing nuances, postponing judgment, and being aware of the potentialities of digital communication. We draw on historical comparisons with earlier communication transitions; in the Conclusion section, we provide a link to the Reader with assignments that can be used as a framework for the purposeful adaptation of the new medium. Challenges to the ideas of this paper are addressed in Appendix 2 through “Disputation between The Skeptic and The Believer”.