FROM TOUCHING THE SCREEN TO READING THE WORLD: DIGITAL LITERACY AMONG NETWORKS, LANGUAGES AND KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

The presence of digital technologies in everyday life has transformed the ways people read, write, communicate, learn, and produce knowledge. However, frequent access to devices, social networks, and digital platforms does not, by itself, ensure the development of critical, autonomous, and socially responsible practices. This chapter discusses digital literacy as a social and educational practice, understanding it beyond the technical mastery of tools. Its objective is to analyze how networks, multiple languages, and different spaces of knowledge circulation reshape reading and writing practices, requiring schools to develop new forms of pedagogical mediation. This is a qualitative and theoretical study conducted through a narrative literature review, drawing on authors from the fields of literacy, multiliteracies, digital culture, and education. The discussion brings together contributions from Soares, Kleiman, Ribeiro, Coscarelli, Rojo, Lankshear and Knobel, Xavier, Castells, Lévy, and Freire, among other researchers. It is argued that being connected does not necessarily mean being digitally literate, since the critical appropriation of technologies involves the ability to select information, interpret different languages, recognize discursive interests, produce content, and participate ethically in digital environments. The chapter concludes that schools and teachers remain fundamental in educating individuals capable of moving critically among texts, screens, networks, and forms of knowledge, transforming the everyday use of technologies into experiences of learning, social participation, and citizenship.