In this millennial era, digital media cannot be separated from everyday life. It was recorded through research published by wearesocial.sg that in 2017 there were 132 million internet users in Indonesia with a growth rate of 51% in just a year, and Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest internet users in the world.
The Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII) also recently released a report "Profile of Internet Users 2022". In the report, APJII revealed that Indonesia's internet penetration will reach 77.02% in 2021-2022. Based on age, the highest internet penetration is in the age group of 13-18 years. Almost all (99.16%) of this age group are connected to the internet. Furthermore, the age group of 19 – 34 years has internet penetration of 98.64%. The 35-54 year age group has an internet penetration of 87.3%, Children aged 5-12 years have an internet penetration of 62.43%. The age group 55 years and over had the lowest penetration with 51.73%. From these data it can be concluded that the highest internet users are younggeneration.
Now anyone can easily access various information circulating on the internet. The rapid flow of information and the amount of negative content circulating, such as pornography, violence, racial issues, can cause confusion, anxiety, hatred and misleading information. Therefore, digital literacy is something crucial, very important and needed by all generation, especially for young generation who are certainly familiar with digital media, both as a communication tool, as a learning tool, entertainment and internet networks.
Digital literacy can be interpreted as a person's ability to process information obtained from digital media.
The following are the benefits and importance of digital literacy for the young generation:
1. Digital literacy will create a generation with a critical-creative mindset and view
With a good understanding of digital literacy, the young generation can be more selective in receiving information. This can prevent negative things such as the spread of hoax news and they will not be easily fooled by everything digital-based ones such as being victims of hoax information.
2. Digital literacy can help the young generation to think creatively and innovatively
By using social media, they can write and share positive contents that are useful and make social media as accurate information and increase reading interest.
3. Creating healthy digital interactions
Digital literacy is able to create a young generation that is wiser and smarter. This can prevent hate speech, thereby creating healthier interactions in the digital world.
Source:
https://tirto.id/pengertian-literasi-digital-dan-pentingnya-bagi-generasi-muda-gugy
https://literasinusantara.com/literasi-digital-pengertian-tantangan-dan-peluang/
