Perceptions and Analysis of Digital Risks

Postface

Through a diverse range of narratives, fields and approaches, this book demonstrates that the risk linked to digital information – digital in its broadest sense – is a fundamental question of how individuals relate to their information environment. It involves their knowledge and skills and, beyond that, a form of trust in and to them. Thinking about risk means thinking deeply about the relationship of trust that we commit ourselves to when we engage in our own information practices, from searching, to selecting, to reading. This affects each of us, from the most expert to the novice or beginner in any field of knowledge. Integrating trust into this relationship and into our information-seeking strategies means accepting interdependence and reciprocity, as well as recognizing a certain amount of vulnerability among the actors and even the partners in the relationship. And in that same so-called “trust” relationship, risk-taking, as a negotiated and tolerated act, is part of the process of researching, sorting and evaluating information.

This book demonstrates that risk exists on many levels: on the one hand, it is in the interpersonal relationships that individuals maintain, regardless of their title, their position and sometimes even their “being”. Here, risk-taking affects the relationship mainly at an emotional, cognitive and even psychological level. These risks are particularly present and burdensome for young people who are in the process of building their own ...