ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the affordances and constraints of digital media and how they affect the way people do things, make meanings, manage their relationships, construct their identities, and think. Ideologies are systems of ideas, practices, and social relationships that govern what is considered right and wrong, good and bad, and normal and abnormal. Throughout history, various imaginaries have developed around new technologies-including stories about what will happen to us when we use them. Professor of science and technology studies Sheila Jasanoff calls these sociotechnical imaginaries, which she defines as collective visions of the future that will be made possible by science and technology. The chapter discusses the concept of mediation as the foundation of our approach to digital literacies. Unequal access also involves unequal access to the social practices and digital literacies that grow out of access to digital tools.
