Digital decency

Practicing digital empathy and responsible digital 

citizenship is a crucial step

Sherry Turkle, the American sociologist, once said: “Technology doesn’t just change what we do; it changes who we are. Online, without empathy and respect, we risk treating people as objects rather than as human beings.”

She said this more than a decade ago, during the golden era of Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. Soon after, between 2010 and 2013, the analog lifestyle began to fade. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and social distancing, accelerated this shift. The digital revolution brought us fully online, from emails and social media to automation and AI. More than ever before, we began to socialise, share, comment, like, and dislike in a screen-mediated world.

Moral reasoning in a screen-mediated world

As noted in the textbook ‘An Introduction to Child Development’ (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016), young people’s behaviour in digital spaces often reflects the responsibility and accountability they develop as they mature. As independence grows, their sense of right and wrong increasingly guides how they use their digital spaces. However, Flores and James (2013) found that moral reasoning is less connected to conduct when mediated by screens. An integrative review in 2025 echoed this concern, noting that online behaviour frequently violates widely accepted moral standards.

What is moral reasoning? It is the capacity to think critically about right and wrong, guided by principles like fairness, justice, care, and well-being for others. As Thomas Hobbes warned: without moral reasoning and order, “life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Is this what happens when we interact through digital screens? Are we drifting toward a society marked by diminished moral reasoning?

Cyberbullying and technology-facilitated violence

A large part of our social life now takes place in digital domains, yet screen-mediated interactions often lack clear moral anchors. According to the ‘Digital 2025 July Global Report’, about one in three people has a social media account, and more than half of the world uses the internet. A 2021 survey by the British Council Sri Lanka and Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning found that most young people in Sri Lanka spend between 30 minutes and 3 hours a day on social media. But what happens when empathy and responsibility collapse? Our online society begins to echo the chaos Hobbes described.

Last month (August 2025), Indian social media influencer Makeover Yash, a popular figure in fashion and grooming, reportedly died by suicide after relentless online bullying. This tragic event is not unique to India. Cyberbullying is far more common than many realise. In 2022, Women In Need (WIN) conducted an island-wide study in Sri Lanka on ‘Technology-facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls’. The findings revealed rising levels of hate speech, harassment, threats, and bullying. Women and girls reported receiving unwanted explicit content, threatening calls, and blackmail tied to intimate photos shared without consent. Nearly one in four respondents said someone they knew had been subjected to online sexual harassment.

This form of abuse spares no one; it cuts across political ideology, age, gender, and sexual orientation. Victims experience sexual and non-sexual harassment that inflicts psychological, social, and economic harm. The psychological toll includes helplessness, distress, and suicidal thoughts. Social harm manifests as humiliation, strained family ties, and broken trust, while economic harm shows up in disrupted education, stalled careers, and tarnished reputations. A quick scroll through Facebook or Instagram reveals plenty of curse words, hate-filled posts, revenge-driven content, and vulgar language, evidence of how unhealthy and unsafe our digital spaces can be.

Digital safety

How can we make this digital society safer? Some advocate for regulation. Yet Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Act (OSA) has drawn sharp criticism from civil society and human rights groups. Though presented as a way to protect people from online harm, in practice, it risks censorship, surveillance, and shrinking democratic space.

Others suggest deleting social media accounts altogether. While simple in theory, this is rarely practical. Parents often advise it, but research shows prohibiting online engagement does not reduce risks and instead limits opportunities (Livingstone et al., 2017). In today’s data-driven world, few can afford to disconnect.

The good news is we are not powerless. Education, awareness, and the right interventions can minimise the harm of cyberbullying and trolling. Practicing digital empathy and responsible digital citizenship is a crucial step.

Digital citizenship

The concept of ‘digital citizenship’ emerged as a way to create safe and respectful online societies. It refers to confident, positive engagement with technology; the ability to participate responsibly, respect rights and dignity, and cultivate a thoughtful online presence.

Most of us are already digital citizens. Even offline, we cannot fully escape the digital world. Digital citizenship is not just about using technology; it is about behaving ethically and respectfully in digital spaces.

We must remember that behind every screen is a human being with feelings, challenges, and family responsibilities. Acting responsibly online is as important as being a responsible citizen in the offline world. In a fast-moving society where information shifts in seconds, this responsibility is vital to building safer communities.

Digital empathy

When engaging in online debates, especially on heated political issues, we often forget the human being on the other side. Online, people say things they would never dare say face-to-face.

Digital empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others through technology. Unlike face-to-face interactions, where tone, body language, and expressions carry meaning, online communication relies on text, emojis, and symbols. Practicing digital empathy means interpreting these cues carefully, listening actively, respecting perspectives, and offering support in virtual spaces.

By remembering that there is a human being on the other side of the screen, and by respecting their dignity while being mindful of our own actions, we can build digital spaces that are healthier and safer for all. We raise the standard when we call out indecent behaviour and choose to stand firmly for humanity and decency.

(The writer is a humanitarian professional with nearly two decades of field experience across East Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has served with United Nations peacekeeping missions, facilitating dialogue, local peace initiatives, and community engagement. His work spans conflict zones, post-disaster settings, and complex emergencies, with a strong background in diplomacy, conflict mitigation, protection, and community resilience.)