Harnessing Digital Cognition for Sustainable Community Development in Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State

This study examined harnessing digital cognition for sustainable community development in Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area. of Rivers State. The study focused on three dimensions of digital cognition: digital awareness, digital information evaluation and digital problem-solving ability. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised of 220,000 residents of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area. A sample size of 200 respondents were selected using the simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analysed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The findings showed that digital awareness had a significant positive relationship with sustainable community development. Digital information evaluation also had a significant positive relationship with sustainable community development. Also, digital problem-solving ability had a significant positive relationship with sustainable community development. The study concluded that digital cognition is important for promoting education, business growth, civic participation, youth empowerment and community improvement. The study recommended that digital literacy training should be organised for residents, residents should be taught how to evaluate online information, and digital tools should be used to solve local community problems.