Digital citizenship and network technology: communication, algorithms and civic applications

Abstract

With strong expectations of gradual and transformative contributions to democracies around the world, the development of cyberspace and of network communication, was seen from the beginning as the great pro-democracy potential throughout the world. On the other hand, they were also common from the beginning, and have been gaining strength, the contrary positions that see in the development of the "global computer network" a growth and strengthening of values aligned with the neoliberal order, in which the principles democratic lose space or are despised in favor of capital. From the systematic review of the literature, we confront the reflections related to network technology in contemporary times with aspects related to democracy, the exercise of citizenship and the concentration of media and unidirectional flows of information and communication. After inserting network technology in the context of democracy and citizenship, we situate the elements that directly interfere with citizen practices in the digital environment: surveillance capitalism, algorithms, disinformation and the use of civic applications and social networks on mobile devices for the exercise of digital citizenship. The results suggest that current colonizing practices are echoed in historical practices related to communication and that without profound changes in the social order, new technological environments are ineffective instruments for the solution of historical communicational problems