#140WaystoTelltheWorld

#140WaystoTelltheWorld: A View on the Impact of Twitter and Social Media on Literacy Practices

Well into the new millennium, a recent transition continues to bridge print and digital platforms, social media began to reconstruct what many thought of the world’s literacy practices and how the world interacted. Tom Anderson revolutionized how many communicated with each other when he created myspace in 2003. Although Anderson began a trend that would continue until even today, Mark Zuckerberg worked to build another larger social media giant known as Facebook in 2004. For many digital natives, or those who were born into a world with digital technology and have acquired the skills necessary to use them in their youth, social media took a significant presence in our daily interactions with others.

Both Myspace and Facebook brought uncertainty to traditional social community practices. They reformatted how people would build, develop and maintain relationships, but even more, they changed how its users sent and received information. From posting notes to posting statuses, the uses of social media built a great presence in the practices of writing. Although the implications of the use of social media on writing practices were still being explored and evaluated, in 2006, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone changed the way the digital world communicated. Entering the social media world after the social platforms Myspace and Facebook (each aligning how an entire generation communicates today), Twitter brought new challenges to the way digital and community literacy practices were conducted, and the way many digital natives thought about presenting information- if I had to express myself in 140 characters or less, what would I say and how would I say it?

Twitter @me

The popularity of social media has grown tremendously over the last decade; the possibility to restructure relationships and maintain them through a completely digital sphere gave nearly unlimited possibilities of online social identity and presence. This socially oriented and mediated practice is the basis of what Greenhow and Gleason call “New Literacies” in their essay Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literacy Practice. Tying together the importance of print-based and traditional literacies with the increasing prevalence and role of digital literacies, the authors view literacy “from a broader, sociocultural perspective as a dynamic, situationally specific, multimodal, and socially mediated practice that both shapes and is shaped by digital technologies” (467). These new forms of social writing practices focused less on the author and more of the collaboration between multiple parties, resulting in a participative and multimodal literacy practice.

Originally used to maintain social interactions between real life friends, social media connected users with other members online as a way to build online communities and share information with friends and family. I opened my first social media accounts with Myspace and Facebook, and soon after I succumbed to opening a Twitter account with building pressure from friends for me to keep in touch with the ongoing events in popular culture. My sociodigital communities expanded to include friends of friends, celebrity profiles, business profiles (Facebook mainly), news sources, and music artists (Myspace mainly). By selecting and expanding my friend base, I could explore and connect with people all around the world; social media made the world seem a lot smaller.

Twitter became a daily journal for millions who desired to send quick updates to the world about their lives. I viewed Twitter as another window into my friends’ lives that would otherwise go unknown; I could easily see who their favorite music artists were, and even elect to follow them on my own profile; I caught a glimpse into some of the businesses they promote, fashion styles, movie celebrities, and family members. There was a new connection to friends and family, and Twitter allowed shared experiences without shared space; distance was no longer a factor in what entertainment and news could be shared-- what happens in China is felt in America. Although one person may write the original tweet, these short messages could be re-sent among millions of people, reaching many countries and nations.

As a microblog, Twitter allows users to create content, tag others in the content, and then share it with all members of the site, if your profile is set to public. Twitter’s new modes of communication placed constraints on even some of the most liberated forms of writing by restricting the number of characters (individual letters, numbers or signs that make up the message) that each tweet can contain.  These tweets are composed and posted by users, designated by an “@” followed by a username (ex. @140WtTtW). Other qualities of the tweet include the hashtag (#) that designates a specific category or theme relating to the text. Each user creates a profile using their email address and uploads a picture and types in a biography in the “About Me” section to identify themselves. When a message is typed within the correct restrictions, the user sends the message out to their followers, or other members of Twitter, who elect to follow this user. Users have the availability to mention other users by tagging them using the @username system.

With over 230 million users worldwide, Twitter is one of the most widely used online forums in history. Users have the ability to access the website and mobile application in more than 35 languages, and with 77% of members living outside of the United States (Twitter Website), the amount of information and the number of perspectives increase exponentially. Supported on nearly all internet-accessible devices, a majority of active users utilize the Twitter mobile application, allowing 24/7 access from almost anywhere with wireless internet connections or mobile phone coverage.

#MyCommunityMyWriting

My Twitter experience has primarily been focused on sharing news information; by following and subscribing to a very large and diverse array news sources, I can find multiple articles about the same topic, share it, and add my own comments. The literacy practices through Twitter formed an interwoven pattern of scrolling through abbreviated language and deciphering their quick, yet informative messages, finding articles, pictures, videos or other themes that interested me, and clicking on the bit url (a shortened version of a website’s full URL) to access a full news article, commentary, book review, or digital art exhibition. This large multimodal platform brings together diverse populations with an enormous palette of nuanced interests.

Studies have shown that despite the diversity of the Twitter user base, people tend to become part of established (or newly establishing) communities. Through identifying linguistic practices, scientists have been able to identify hierarchy of communities using the frequency of words and the constant replication of spelling patterns. According to Science Daily, groups of users with similar character traits, occupations or interests have expressed use of their own distinctive languages.

These online social interactions through Twitter similarly reflect how common community structures are developed and sustained in real life. By identifying changes in word-endings and letter-pairs, scientist could create subgroups of writing styles and connect users to specific artists, phenomena and locations. In their article in the EPJ Data Science Journal, Bryden et al concluded that the “language we use bears the signature of societal structure” (5). By sharing language, users help structure and preserve their own linguistic qualities and cultural characteristics. These linguistic stylings have had many repercussions throughout world of academia, and especially in the field of writing.

In his book Language and the Internet, Crystal defines the specific internet language as Netspeak; as a language that picks up characteristics of both speech and writing, Netspeak further complicates the idea of composition. Like traditional writing, Netspeak remains fixated in time and space, allows added time to digest and form ideas about the information received, and is visually decontextualized, meaning it has the ability to exist on its own as an entity without visual representations such as diagrams, pictures, charts or videos. Also similar to speech, Netspeak picks up qualities and structures that tend to flow much more fluidly when read aloud and typically picks up the patterns of speech more so than writing.

Unlike traditional essay style forms of writing, Twitter’s limitations force its users to express ideas in a very concise and still legible manner, causing sometimes drastic changes in how the physical message appears. I have found myself thinking of the most logical way to abbreviate words, dropping letters that in traditional writing are important. Some people drop articles, prepositions and vowels, and replace them with specific signs (e.g. using the commercial at (@) to signify at someone or something). Simple messages such as “thx 2 all who came out 2 party! Had a blast. #bday2012” are still understood, clear in idea and meaning, yet is truncated and abbreviated to fit modern online writing. It comprises many of the conventions of English writing (subject and predicate formation, noun and verb concordance, and punctuation), and incorporates conventions of online writing practices and Twitter with the use of a hashtag (#).

Writing on social media has changed how and where writing practices occur; moving away from traditional paper-based literacy practices, online writing incorporates different media to express information, including videos, pictures, diagrams and charts; these visual aids are used to enhance the reader’s experience, and give better context and more thorough information for items that may not be able to be expressed as clearly through words alone. Twitter utilizes many different elements to construct a new experience in literacy; it allows interdisciplinary connections to be made between writing and other subjects, provides a more immediate platform to share ideas, allows users to share ideas through very concise and rapid bursts of information, makes space for group collaboration and enhances community literacy practices.

Writing skills are not only challenged through Twitter practices, but arguably redefined. By modifying words and expanding the use of initialisms, a user can express himself by creating a quick, yet descriptive message, add a hashtag to connect the message to an ongoing theme, and even pinpoint and write to one specific user, or in response to a specific tweet using the Retweet (RT) function. These retweets (seen left) have become useful in preventing misquotes, plagiarism, and the need to always paraphrase another person. Similar to traditional writing, when finding information online, it is necessary to have increased scrutiny when reading so much information, and knowing sources is useful and necessary.

Greenhow and Gleason wrote that Twitteracy (Twitter Literacy) has affected the literacy practices of English-language learners (ELLs) and young immigrant populations. In a longitudinal study, it was found that ELLs were “developing language and literacy, and social skills across national borders” by sharing information, communicating and “negotiating meaning with youth in different countries” (470). Through the use of constant feeds of information, the increased participation of users in particular conversations develop literacy skills and broader discussions; these conversations require more immediate responses, frequent presence and knowledge of sociodigital conventions. This form of self-representation is the foundation of social media-- you must establish yourself within one or more sub-communities, learn the norms of each community, and present well formed ideas and thoughts in a creative manner.

Staying Connected

Like other forms of social media, Twitter used to provide and receive information through online writing. With the multitude of reasons to share information, Twitter has expanded the scope of who sees tweets and how far the tweet goes. Although users can set their profiles to private, a majority of the tweets that are created are posted openly to the public where anyone with the correct hashtag or connections can find and read the posts. Using modern technology is a significant identifying marker for youth, and access to new information is a key component staying informed. According to a CNN article written by Chris Boyette, a report from November 5, 2013 showed that “40% of all U.S. adults get

news ‘at least sometimes’ on mobile devices.” Although only 8% of the American adult population relies on Twitter for news, 85% of Twitter users receive their news from the site.      

In early 2011, social media sites Facebook and Twitter noted a large increase in user participation on a global scale due to the publicity of the Arab uprisings. Millions of tweets were sent mentioning key words such as “Egypt,” “Libya,” and “Bahrain;” the hashtag “Egypt” saw 1.4 million mentions alone, according to the news site The National’s  article “Facebook and Twitter key to Arab Spring uprisings: report.” News sites such as the Associated Press, The New York Times and NPR tweet current events, updates on previous events, and advertisements about upcoming news segments, allowing users to keep up with news and information without being glued to a television or always on a computer. According to Boyette’s article, a Pew reports showed that the majority of Twitter news content was comprised of breaking news, and not opinion, despite the ease of posting biased and uninformed opinions.

But national and international news is not the only use for Twitter; fan bases all around the world use Twitter to directly interact with their favorite artists, politicians, and other public figures. Scrolling through my Twitter feed, you will find tweets of upcoming concerts from Beyonce, Solange, and Linkin Park, and comedians such as Sarah Silverman and Dane Cook posting random facts and jokes, and even parody-type profiles that create accounts using the persona of someone who normally wouldn’t have a Twitter account (for example, Betty White). In 2012, Justin Bieber was the third most tweeted topic only behind the Olympics and the 2012 Election.

Who are the Tweeters?

Despite being part of nearly all digital social activities, young aged people are not the only ones who are using Twitter as a sounding board and forum. In fact, the fastest growing demographic of Twitter users is the age group of 55- 64 year olds, although high school and college-age youth are the most likely to adopt the social media forum. According to Greenhow and Gleason, the demographics most likely to use twitter are “African-American teens, lower income teens and girls” (466). Other characteristics show that tweeters are most likely to live in a city and attend college. Twitter reaches across educational levels, socioeconomic statuses, traditional borderlines, and ages; the cosmopolitan website draws on divergent walks of life.

From blogs to chat room forums, the newer forms of social media were the natural next steps for digital natives. The ability to easily post notes and statuses came easily as a form of composing, and the reality is that changing digital composition practices didn’t really come to the minds of natives as a hardship, but simply became another addition to the array of digital interactions that make up the digital native’s résumé.

@teachersin2013 Thnk we r c’n changes in skool literacy? #curricula

            “I wonder if some social media savvy individuals even recognize that OMG and YOLO are not real words,” wrote Jamie Perkins, a graduate student at Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington, to San Jose Mercury News in October of 2013. As I, and many other digital natives, parry this question, it is a very large issue in modern literacy practice, and its implications in academia can potentially reverberate for many years. As the role that digital technology plays in classrooms continues to evolve, the answer to whether or not social media sites, such as Twitter, is negatively affecting a student’s ability to write deep and engaging material that can be constituted as academic writing, is not clear, nor has there been enough time to gather data to argue whether the social media impact is affecting classroom performance.

Some studies have shown that English language learners have greater practice times using out-of-school based platforms; this practice incorporates both traditional and non-traditional literacy practices, and builds on their 21st century literacy skills. Showing how informal writing spaces aligned with traditional literacy skills, Greenhow and Gleason quoted R. Black on how ELLs were able to “practice and improve their English-language and composition skills, develop their technological literacy, the ability to find, select, critically evaluate, and synthesize a range of information across media”(473). These findings showed that ELL students were more motivated to engage in course-related and informal writing practices. I have seen the use of social media increase even with my ELL students; by connecting with family in their own countries and within the United States, they are developing their own biliteracy through these digital interactions, and expanding their fluency in both English and their native languages. The use of multimodal composition should be stressed within the classroom even more than before, since the use of multimodal composing shows expertise in not only text-based literacy, but visual literacies; the incorporation of pictures, diagrams and videos juxtaposed with text demonstrates fluency in the use of technology to support and give meaning.

            Bridging in- and out- of-class experiences can be a challenging part of building classroom curricula; as the digital world is constantly evolving, it is important to find the roles that teachers play in helping develop student literacy practices in both print- and digital- bases. Some believe that the role of teachers can no longer focus on always teaching specific content, but teaching how to decipher and become critical of information provided through digital platforms. News literacy should be taught by teachers, argues Renee Loth in her article “What’s Black and White and Re-Tweeted All Over?” Ideas such as “getting both sides of the story, keeping an open mind, and digging deep to verify facts and assertions” are just a few of the things that Loth wants to see educators implement in their classrooms. The growing scope of where literacy practices occur continues to drive multiple educational reforms, and digital literacy doesn’t appear to have peaked within the last decade, but instead is seen as the future of literacy practices.

           

Opportunities for Further Study and Inquiry

            With so many arguments circling the digital sphere, there are many questions that require further research and criticism. First, it is necessary to compare compositional practices of students who have a great presence in social media and is learning the traditional conventions of print-based writing. Making observations and comparisons between the work that is produced in both realms may give insight to whether online social writing practices directly impact the quality (and perhaps quantity) of work that is produced.

            Second, it is necessary to directly study the implications of the use of Twitter on literacy practices, since there are not many studies directly connecting the two. Many studies draw off of Facebook and Myspace to draw connections and conclusions about various populations and literacy practices.

            Third, it is necessary to continue to research the longer term literacy practices of students, and gather data on their own personal experiences and perspectives on how digital platforms impact how and where they receive information. How do they differentiate print-based literacy from digital literacy, and what are some of the thought processes that occur when they are forced to write formally versus the informal compositions that they produce daily?

            The writing experiences in the world are continually shifting and changing, and although we can see some immediate effects of digital composing, the longer term repercussions have yet to be realized. Whether positive or negative, the impact of social media on writing and reading practices has a tendency to blend traditional community literacy practices with expanded sociodigital community practices. Twitter continues to change the scope of which we view online literacy, how people receive and present information, the types of information that we receive, and increases the ability to provide multimodal opportunities of learning; these changes have implications in and beyond classroom settings and further studies may reveal how our minds, digital technologies and literacy practices are molding and reconstructing each other. 

Works Cited

Bryden, John, Sebastian Funk, and Vincent AA Jansen. “Word usage mirrors community structure in the online social network Twitter.” EPJ Data Science 2.3 (2013): n. pag. Web. 6 Nov 2013.

Boyette, Chris. “Twitter news junkies skew young, educated.” www.cnn.com. CNN. 5 Nov 2013. Web. 5 Nov 2013.

Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.

Greenhow, Christine and Benjamin Gleason.  "Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literacy Practice" The Educational Forum, Vol 76 (2012): 464-478. DOI. Web. 6 Nov 2013.

Loth, Renee. “What’s Black and White and Re-Tweeted All Over?.” Chronicle of Higher Education 58.23 (2012): B4-B5. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 6 Nov 2013.

Margerison, Jill. “Online discussion forums in the classroom: can the principles of social media benefit literacy and enhance engagement with learning?.” Literacy Learning: The Middle Years 21.2 (2012): 19+. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov 2013.

Perkins, Jamie. “Twitter and literacy: Do young writers even know LOL and YOLO aren’t real words?.” www.mercurynews.com. San Jose Mercury News. 18 Oct 2013. Web. 6 Nov 2013.

University of Royal Holloway London. "New research discovers the emergence of Twitter 'tribes'." www.sciencedaily.com. ScienceDaily. 14 March 2013. Web. 17 Dec 2013.