International Literacy Day, observed on Sep. 8, served as a reminder of the urgent global need to improve literacy. On this occasion, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) emphasized the importance of equipping every individual with literacy skills to fully benefit from digitalization.
The call was based on UNESCO’s alarming report revealing that four in ten children worldwide fail to achieve minimum reading proficiency, while 272 million children and adolescents were out of school in 2023.
Through the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, the Indonesian government reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding the digital space through the National Digital Literacy Movement (GLDN).
This program focuses on four pillars: Digital Skills, Digital Safety, Digital Culture, and Digital Ethics, collectively known by the acronym CABE.
This initiative has been welcomed by Syaifa Tania, a lecturer at the Department of Communication Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Fisipol UGM).
According to Tania, digital literacy programs should not only focus on technical skills in accessing digital media but also equip users with critical and substantive thinking abilities.
The Executive Director of the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) at Fisipol UGM highlighted that misinformation and disinformation remain serious challenges in accessing digital information.
Tania explained that even users who consider themselves digitally literate remain vulnerable to information manipulation, particularly with today’s advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
“AI enables content manipulation, such as deepfakes, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic material, so we must remain vigilant,” said Tania on Monday (Sep. 15).
Another pressing challenge arises from the phenomenon of echo chambers on social media. Echo chambers refer to individuals being defensive of their own views and perspectives, with beliefs and opinions amplified without exposure to different viewpoints.
This issue is exacerbated by confirmation bias or a psychological tendency to seek out information that reinforces pre-existing views.
“At this point, digital literacy must go hand-in-hand with critical thinking skills,” Tania stressed.
To strengthen these skills, Tania advocated for an inquiry-based learning approach, in which the learning process continuously questions information. For example, learners are encouraged to ask who is sending the information, what motives underlie it, and what evidence supports it.
She further emphasized that digital literacy and critical thinking are interconnected and equally important. Digital literacy enables individuals to access and obtain information through digital media.
“Meanwhile, critical thinking skills empower individuals to actively examine, interpret, and analyze the information they receive. This prevents us from passively accepting all incoming information,” she concluded.
Author: Aldi Firmansyah
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Rajendra Arya
Photograph: Kompas.com