Global digital literacy skills
Digital literacy is essential in today’s society.
Internet
There has been substantial growth in home use of the internet over the past 25 years. Over 3 billion people, which is approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population, access the internet using a variety of devices.
Social media
As seen in the increase of home internet users, the number of social media tools has also risen significantly.
Social media are web-based communication tools, as opposed to more traditional media such as newspapers and TV.
Popular social media sites and applications are varied and include the following.
| YouTube | Wikipedia | ||||
| Users upload pictures, photos and videos, and send messages. | Users post tweets which may contain photos, pictures and videos, links and up to 140 characters of text. | Users share videos, pictures and photos taken on smartphones. | Users share videos for anyone to see. | This is designed for the business community to make professional connections with others. | This is an encyclopaedia which has been written collaboratively by the people who use it. |
| Users upload pictures, photos and videos, and send messages. | |
| Users post tweets which may contain photos, pictures and videos, links and up to 140 characters of text. | |
| Users share videos, pictures and photos taken on smartphones. | |
| YouTube | Users share videos for anyone to see. |
| This is designed for the business community to make professional connections with others. | |
| Wikipedia | This is an encyclopaedia which has been written collaboratively by the people who use it. |
Estimates suggest that there are around 2.3 billion social network users worldwide. People use these sites and applications for personal, employment and business purposes.
