The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics

What’s the first thing you reach for in the morning? Is it your smartphone? Do you keep it next to your bed and use it as your alarm clock? Do you glance at it numerous times during the day in response to texts, emails, or other notifications? What about your computer? Do you have a laptop that travels with you to class and the library or do you have a desktop computer you work on when you’re at home? What are other kinds of things that you do on your smartphone or other mobile device, on your laptop or desktop computer? What would your life be like if you couldn’t use those devices or even access the internet? How would your life change? Your ability to use digital technology to accomplish daily tasks and solve daily problems is called digital literacy. But it’s not something you have or don’t have. What makes a person digitally literate changes constantly because digital devices, software, and apps are always changing and what you do with them changes as well. But why does digital literacy matter? Research into digital literacy tries to answer key questions such as why using digital technologies is important, who benefits from using digital tools, and how they benefit.