Net Smart

Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with
too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century. But
how can we use digital media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive
receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking basket cases? In Net
Smart, cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold shows us how to use social media
intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully.

Mindful use of digital media
means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to
spend our time. Rheingold outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help
us do this: attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information (or "crap
detection"), and network smarts. He explains how attention works, and how we can use our attention
to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information. He describes the
quality of participation that empowers the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other
online community participants; he examines how successful online collaborative enterprises
contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways; and he teaches us a lesson on networks and
network building.

Rheingold points out that there is a bigger social issue at
work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our individual
efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a
Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.