So I'm about to give a little background information because if I don't I'll just confuse everyone, and that will just be no fun. Anyhow, in my anthropology class, we just did our final group projects, and my group focused on interactions. Each person had an individual topic under this large umbrella of interactions, and my topic was face to face interactions vs. interactions via text or Facebook chat. As I researched for my topic and conducted interviews, I found that most people I interviewed realized that Facebook wasn't "real life" as I coined it, while the studies I saw all wanted to point the big finger at the evil Facebook for wrongfully teaching today's youth about what it means to be a "friend" among other values.
So there's the background, excuse the minor tangent, now time for my point. I started to think, do Facebook and texting impede our literacy, or does it help it? Strangely enough, as I write this post, I see that both "Facebook" and "texting" have the little red squiggly lines underneath them, implying that they aren't even words! But how can these methods of communication that are so commonly used not be considered as forms of literacy? As I researched, I was actually surprised by the amount of articles that supported texting and Facebook as legitimate forms of literacy. The articles I found about socialization in the real world vs. the Facebook world surely denounced Facebook as useful to develop certain skills of young people, but these articles seem to think that Facebook is a valuable tool. Here's what I found.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Txts-blogs-and-Facebook-.3799671.jp
This article states that these are the literacies of the future, they will be taught "alongside books, plays and poetry in schools in future." Although I don't know if this is 100% accurate, I do agree with the belief that as our businesses revolutionize, these literacies will be more important in the workplace.
If this trend really is true, does that mean that it's time to start accepting new literacies as comparable to essay writing, or should we stay true to our roots?
That's really interesting. I've often thought about the differences between classic literature like Shakespeare and more modern works. There seems to have been such more emphasis on written work in history because it was the elite and advanced form of communication. Will future generations look towards the movies of our time and one day consider them as the classic works?
ReplyDeleteWow what an intriguing post. You're right Lauren now that the world is quickly changing and new forms of technology are becoming increasingly popular it is true that we need to accept new forms of literacy. Change will happen whether or not we like it and as the older generations begin to fade the newer ones are taking over. Just look around now even large companies and fortune 500 companies have recognized the power of Facebook, Twitter and other sites. While these new literacies are great nothing will ever replace the classic literacies.
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