A Guideline to the Media Literacy of Social Media for Working Citizens in Bangkok based on the Buddhist Integration

Abstract

This article was a part of a research titled ‘A Guideline to the Media Literacy of Social Media for Working Citizens in Bangkok based on the Buddhist Integration’, containing 3 objectives: (1) to study the problem of social media in Thailand, 2) to study the knowledge and the Buddhist teachings related to social media literacy, (3) to present the guidelines for social media literacy of working people in Bangkok using the Buddhist integration. It was the qualitative research with in-depth interviews. The research results indicated that the current problems of social media are the deception, quarrel, cyberbullying, fake news, etc., all are caused by 3 main defilements: greed, anger, and delusion, causing harms to oneself, others, and society. The Buddhist teachings integrated into social media literacy practiced as a tool for creating wisdom and effective social media literalizing by relying on the Buddhist teachings, including 1) Sati-Sampajañña Principles or Mindfulness and Awareness, 2) Principle of Kālāma Sutta, 3) Principle of Yonisomanasikāra and 4) Principle of Sappurisadhamma.

As for the social media literacy guideline, there were 3 methods: 1) the method of messages’ social media literacy of sender, 2) the content of messages’ social media literacy method, and 3) the method messages’ social media literacy of receiver. These 3 methods must be integrated with the Buddhist teachings to create knowledge for social media were; mindfulness while using social media, reasonable thought, and proper using management of social media called Social Media Literacy Model which was "SKYS" = S (Sati-Sampajañña or mindfulness and awareness), K (Kālāma Sutta), Y (Yonisomanasikāra or deep consideration), and S (Sappurisadhamma or Wise virtues).