5 Helpful Digital Literacy Skills You Actually Need

International Literacy Day, held annually on September 8, focuses on the world literacy rates, and remaining challenges. Although the number of educated people is growing, there are plenty of those who still lack necessary digital literacy skills.

Technology is constantly developing, and digital literacy skills are crucial for keeping up with its pace. Not only do they help survive on the internet, but are also beneficial at work and other everyday activities.

One of the most advanced VPN services in the world—NordVPN—provides a list of five essential digital skills that are useful daily. These are five categories of essential digital literacy skills:

Photo-visual literacy

From photos to GIFs to videos, our world is becoming more visual. Graphic information is easier to use, and quicker to understand. That’s why instead of words and sentences, now we are reading more abstract symbols. To practice, pay close attention to details and try analyzing what you see. This will help you develop a better visual memory, and strong intuitive-associative thinking.

Imagine this: You’re chatting online with a person who has an AI-generated profile picture. With this skill, you’ll be able to notice inaccuracies in the photo, and even expose a fake.

Information literacy

If you don’t want to get lost between vast amounts of information, try to become more critical, or even skeptical. You have to learn when there is a need for information, and how to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use it. Being always aware allows making better conclusions, giving opinions, and constructing models. That’s how you can become resistant to fake news or online scams.

To illustrate, you read an article about a super-secure antivirus program, which is available to download for free. Having this skill, you’re able to understand that the article may be sponsored. Also, you might figure out that nothing can be very trustworthy if it’s free.

Branching literacy

It is a method of thinking, when accessing information in a non-linear manner. Branching helps to compile independent bits of information to perform complex and demanding tasks. Maintaining this skill improves navigation performance on the net, and prevents problems of disorientation. It is applicable when solving challenges, especially when they require structuring.

Example: You’re looking for cheaper flight tickets, and the page you were browsing redirects you to different flight company websites. By being able to think in a non-linear manner, you won’t get lost between the pages. It won’t be hard to navigate, and you’ll notice some of them being untrustworthy.

Reproduction literacy

Our modern world is made out of modified bits and pieces. Originality is something already replicated. But, every person should be able to produce meaningful and creative work, or interpretations. To do so, one should be able to integrate existing independent pieces of information. Creative thinking also gives an understanding of authorship.

This skill will help you notice the differences between pirated or unauthorized apps or programs, and may save you from accidentally downloading a file with malware.

Socio-emotional literacy

It is one of the most complex skills, and requires all the previously mentioned ones. A socio-emotionally literate person is a critical thinker who can process information in a non-linear manner. That makes one resistant to scams or other “traps,” like emails with viruses or social media fakes. It is also applicable in real life, when participating in various social interactions.

For example, developing this skill helps you recognize a virus link sent from a fake Google or Dropbox email.

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