The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Knowing what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is important, but it doesn't add to what someones digital rights are. In a world where many people have online identities and an online presence, we need to figure out what it means to be a digital citizen, not only what our human rights are. Learning these human rights is the proper step in determining what our digital rights are.

We can take many points made in the Universal Declaration and apply them to the digital world. Here is a list of a few I would like to discuss.

Article 5.
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Article 19.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Article 27.
"(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."

Article 5 is important to understand in a digital perspective because often times online people are treating others in cruel and inhumane ways. Trolling is a perfect example of how cruel people can be to others, much like the story told in class about the blogger who's offender made a fake twitter account as if it was her dead father. People online are horrible to others simply because they need to fill a void in their lives and because they do not realize that an actual person is on the other side of the screen. By more people realizing this horrible phenomenon of cruel behavior online and taking action to change this, the digital world will be one step closer to creating a more kind environment.

Article 19 discusses the freedom of opinion and expression, which is not only important in our human lives but our digital lives as well. We should be allowed to express ourselves online in any way, shape, or form. If the digital world had only one sided views, people would not understand the vast amount of perspectives on many different topics. Keeping freedom of opinions and expressions online create a more diverse digital society with many different views to consider.

Article 27 takes into consideration the many different opportunities that everyone should be involved with. In a new digital age, this is more prevalent than ever before. There is a vast amount of information online and different groups that people can become apart of. Allowing people do join whatever community, enjoy arts, and share scientific advancements and its benefits online creates a more informed society and enhances the possibilities of learning and creating new things every day.

Source: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

Digital Inequality in Chinatown

Seeing the perspective of someone who doesn't constantly have digital information in their lives apposed to us who live off of our phones and have instant access whenever we need it was surprisingly refreshing to read. Although I was aware that many people do not have access to the internet or know how to use technology, I never really thought too much about it or looked into it. Finding out that "only about 56 percent of Chinatown residents report having Internet access at home, compared with a city average of around 88 percent" was quite shocking (Hong). San Fransisco is a very technology based city, so to see a group of people there that do not have access to internet seems so unlikely, but it is happening. 

Going to a library to use the internet seems like an outdated thing to do. I remember when I was younger I would go to the library to use the internet at times, but that wasn't the only way of accessing the internet for myself. The other 44% of people that only access the internet this way are left out from many things today. Some of them only know how to look at a few news articles and email with the help of a librarian. These types of people are not in the loop with what people are doing today because of this. Most jobs and other things require internet to do their work in some way, shape, or form and these people are unable to excel in these areas. Even the simple thing of "googling" something on the spot is unavailable to many people in Chinatown. 

We are constantly learning new things and progressing with technology but without the internet, you can't continually do this to the fullest. Recently I found out that a friend of mine, Joey, who had downgraded their iPhone to a "dumb phone" that only had calling and texting. I was surprised that anybody in 2016 would actually do this because of how attached we are to technology and phones. Joey is the opposite of these people in Chinatown. He has given up his instant access to internet and only uses it in his home but he is still apart of the 56% of people who have this access at home. 

Overall, people in Chinatown have a large digital inequality to most people in todays society.

Source: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6196/5187