Digital Citizenship in the New Era of Social Media

The realm of social media, since its inception in the mid-2000s, has revolutionized the digital environment, offering a platform for continuous, ubiquitous, and international connections among citizens. In this evolving context, data and mobile technologies have redefined communication codes, presenting new individual, social, and ethical challenges. Digital and social platforms usher in novel ways of relating, staying informed, and fostering community engagement through diverse content forms. As hyperconnected societies transit through data exchanges manifesting as clicktivism and digital leisure, these platforms have fundamentally altered user connectivity, impacting structures, formats, and content. A horizon for inquiry emerges, focused on the use of interpersonal skills online and the evolution of prosocial behaviors within digital communities.

The rapid evolution of the digital landscape, now sometimes dubbed as post-digital, is marked by information hyperinflation. While users possess unprecedented access to information, the quality remains variable, and traditional information actors—governments, organizations, and media—are losing credibility. Although the internet acts as the 21st century's agora, mere digital presence does not equate to meaningful connections or informed audiences. A range of contradictions arises as the technologically hyperconnected public may lack emotional connection or reliable insights. Addressing phenomena such as fake news, information overload, grooming, sexting, cyberbullying, and more, necessitates the incorporation of media literacy actions, ensuring foundational skills adaptability to modern online challenges.

This Research Topic aims to explore the dynamics reshaping global and digital citizenship, with an emphasis on developing essential (trans)media competencies. We welcome articles exploring individual and collective virtual behaviors and actions within social networks, as well as the identification of emerging phenomena, communities, and best practices through rigorous quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methodologies. To gather further insights into the post-digital landscape, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• digital media literacy

• new shapes of leadership and reputation in the digital era

• astroturfing and misinformation in social media

• the algorithmic shaping of digital communities and subcultures

• online identity performance, authenticity, and social capital

• the role of digital in activism, protest, and political movements

• the impact of meme culture, language play, and aesthetic trends in online spaces

• platform governance, moderation, and the policing of digital communications

• the relationship between new digital subcultures and traditional institutions (media, academia, politics)

• the mobility and transnational connections of digital communities

• communication and creativity in the new social media scenario

• critical thinking and computational thinking.

Keywords: digital citizenship, Digital Media Literacy, Social Connectivity, Misinformation, Algorithmic Communities

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.