Digital Literacy and Vulnerability to Misinformation

Lack of digital literacy can be a major barrier towards improving the informational well-being of Internet users. Using a field survey of 674 Facebook users in urban Pakistan, we find significant differences in individuals' ability to use common Facebook features. We find that digital literacy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media
Main Authors: Ayesha Ali, Ihsan Ayyub Qazi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: HOPE 2022-11-01
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journalqd.org/article/view/3620
Description
Summary:Lack of digital literacy can be a major barrier towards improving the informational well-being of Internet users. Using a field survey of 674 Facebook users in urban Pakistan, we find significant differences in individuals' ability to use common Facebook features. We find that digital literacy is lower among older, less educated, lower income and female users, which points to barriers faced by different demographic groups in improving their digital literacy. Moreover, lower digital literacy is associated with worse truth discernment, lower sharing of true news, emotional reactions to online content, but not more confirmation bias.
ISSN:2673-8813