First of all it is important to define both notions. The notion of citizenship refers to the fact that you are a member of a country and as such, you have rights but you also have duties and responsabilities. As for the notion of virtual worlds, it alludes to a world created by new technologies and this world appears to be sometimes unreal on the one hand, that is to say virtual, and on the other hand real in some ways. This virtual world allows almost every human being worldwide to communicate together, research information, and do business thanks to technological appliances such as smartphones, computers, tablets, etc…
No need to say that this advent of technologies has disrupted our landmarks and created plenty of issues with negative consequences but also lots of improvements in our everyday life. We all have witnessed examples of the dark sides of social media: invasion of privacy has permitted social and sexual harassment resulting in mental health issues because the virtual worlds enable us to feel powerful thanks to anonymity or a fake identity. You can send a post or a message to anyone without revealing your identity. You can share fake news or false information without being troubled and it has become more and more difficult to sort out true from false information.
However new technologies have helped us to open our mind because we can communicate with our remote friends and family and also make new distant friends. It also facilitated online trade and people can start a business and sell their goods much more easily. Thanks to the internet we can find any information in a few seconds and it promotes distance learning. The example of telemedicine shows the convenience and benefits of technology ; you can be seen by a doctor online and solve your medical problem from home or wherever you are.
All this leads to a deep change in our social relationship, we no longer have to move to meet our relatives or friends, we can even make new friends who happen to be total strangers and we may be tricked or hacked at any time. Hence the argument against social media considered as a potential risk for its users. Furthermore social media may have psychological consequences for some users as they are rather addictive just like video games. Online games create addiction very rapidly and far from saving time new technologies make us dependent on them.
