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Young people entering the workplace need to learn how to navigate the muddy waters of social media. They need to learn how to use it for marketing and sharing crucial information. They need to know when to court interaction and when to act as background.
They need to understand that literacy isn't just about Jane Austen and that bullying can happen online as well as in the school cafeteria.
That becomes a priority as Pennsylvania puts in place new require-
ments for schools to teach about the mental, psychological and even physical effects of our digital world.
The new laws, which were part of the budget legislation passed this
month, require social media literacy and amended policies on bullying and cyberbullying, including parental notification.
This is important. The internet is hard to navigate, even for a generation that has grown up with smartphones and iPads. Artificial intelligence is changing the nature of what is available online. Deepfakes make it difficult to know what you can trust.
And that's just looking at how you can be misled online. It doesn't even touch on deliberate harm -- whether you are the victim or the bully. The state was right to push this forward. Knowing how to exist in a social media world is becoming as critical a skill as driving. Unfortunately, you don't need a license to use social media.
Just as unfortunately, there's no course to take for adults. They might
need it more. This push for more understanding and appreciation comes at an important time. Lawmakers also are advocating for restricting social media for minors. They want to block it at school. They want to place guardrails in general. It's happening in other
countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.
It's also happening as artificial intelligence is weaving itself into
more and more daily life and as data centers are becoming part of our neighborhood landscapes. Both of these make understanding how to use social media responsibly all the more important.
It's just part of being a good citizen -- digital or in the real world. Understand what's real and what's not, how to respond and when to respond.
When all else fails, don't do anything online that you wouldn't want
your boss or your grandma to know about.
-- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review