A cyber-wisdom approach to digital citizenship education. Perceptions of spanish teenagers

INTRODUCTION. The use of social media in the digital age is an integral part of adolescents' lives. It is important for teenagers to know how to use social media responsibly and ethically. Character education and cyber-wisdom are essential to help them understand the importance of virtues in the use of social media. This study explores adolescents' views on and practices of character, virtue, and wisdom in the digital age. The METHOD consisted of applying a validated questionnaire to a population sample of 1,784 middle and high school students enrolled in public, charter, and private schools in different localities in the Community of Madrid. The SPSS.29 statistic was used to analyse the data. The RESULTS show the evaluations made by the adolescents about their experience of using social networks in their environment of friends and peers, as well as the empathy shown in their communications, highlighting in the DISCUSSION the linguistic behaviours that manifest the communicative intentions of their messages on the networks, as well as the qualities and virtues that they consider relevant both for themselves and their friends and peers. Very similar evaluations can be seen in terms of the variables gender and age. The most valued virtues in the use of social networks both for themselves and for their friends and peers are the so-called civic or social virtues, followed by moral and intellectual virtues.