At the beginning of the term I thought that I was 100% respectful online and responsible with my use of social media. Throughout the lessons I learnt that it was so much more then just not responding to offensive messages or posts but standing up and stopping that behavior (respectfully).
We learnt and discussed Empathy, Respect, Responsibility and Critical Thinking. I think that all these points tie in perfectly and could almost use the same broad definition.
Empathy – Empathy is trying to put yourself in somebodies situation and trying to understand and share the feeling of another. Using empathy in a real life example, somebody makes a post about something going on in his/her family, instead of ignoring or making a comment about overreacting, you could private dm that person and talk about it with them, among them not feel alone during this time.
Respect – respect is the feeling of treating others the way that you would expect to be treated and not disregarding their feelings, thoughts or beliefs because you were told different or you feel as though you are better then them. For example, somebody posts something about their religion, your Muslim friend from school posts about not eating pork, instead of commenting something offensive to their religion you could just comment a heart or something friendly yet supportive.
Responsibility – responsibility is doing the right thing even when nobody is watching. This relates to online behavior by not doing something that your grandparents wouldn’t approve of. For example, you have a responsibility to protect your privacy, passwords, etc.
Critical Thinking – Thinking about all the possible outcomes before you do something. Thinking about the effect on others, on yourself and on everybody in the future. For example, one of your friends gets into a fight and its getting serious, calling for help or stopping it could save a life or a reputation.
I think that the health lessons were engaging and informative 🙂
