Educators and parents constantly look for reasons to give their students and children, respectively, for learning to read and write. In this article, a few practical reasons for learning to read and write are discussed. We will look at a few areas that are important to students, and in many cases adults, as well. These areas are posting to Facebook, blog posting, tweeting on Twitter, and learning by surfing. Some people may not consider this article a pertinent topic. Before passing judgment, consider the following:
• Facebook has over 1 billion users (Vance, 2012).
• Google conducted 11.8 billion internet searches in the United States from September 13, 2012 through October 12, 2012 according to comScore November 16, 2012, press release: comScore Releases October 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings.
• Twitter has over 500 million accounts and 140 million active users. Active is defined as users who log in at least once a month (Taylor, 2012).
Posting to Facebook whether to the timeline, tagging a person in a photo, or sending a message; these represent methods of communication…as natural to teenagers and young adults as breathing.
First let’s begin with being able to read a Facebook page. Posting to Facebook whether to the timeline, tagging a person in a photo, or sending a message; these represent methods of communication in the virtual world. This is as natural to teenagers and young adults as breathing. Facebook posting isn’t just for personal and informal communications, it is used by major businesses in order to reach out and touch customers and potential customers. According to the Social Media Surge by the 2012 Fortune 500: Increase Use of Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and More by Barnes, Lescault, and Andonian (2012), 66% of the Fortune 500 companies have a presence on Facebook; with specialty retailers, food consumer products, and telecommunications being the industry leaders. I know this might sound counter intuitive to some parents and some educators; however, my response to that would be to adjust to the Twenty First Century.
Now we turn to blog posting, blog posting is a modern skill that you should know how to use. If you don’t know how to blog, then get with a teenager and learn how to post a
blog and read a blog. Just about any topic that interests you has a blog. If you don’t believe me, then perform this simple and quick experiment. Choose your favorite hobby, google the hobby along with the word “blog” in the search window, click on the first three results from the search, and see how much information is out there on your hobby. As with Facebook blogs are not just for social and recreational use, blogs are used by businesses in order to develop their relationships with their customers. This is communication among the customer, the business, and other customers. According to Barnes, Lescault, and Andonian (2012) 28% of the Fortune 500 companies have corporate blogs; with the industry leaders being telecommunications, commercial banks, and specialty retailers.
The phrase “learning by surfing” is used here for the use of search engines for everything from basic inquiry about what a word means; to using the search engines in formal research for academic or business purposes and projects.
Our third area to explore is that of the Twitter world. If you don’t have a Twitter account and you have children or you don’t have children; you should establish a Twitter account. Tweeting on Twitter is unique because it forces you to be concise and to the point. It gives you a mere 140 characters, which includes spaces and punctuation, in order to communicate your message. Once again the Twitter world is used by many businesses in order to communicate with customers and potential customers. As for Twitter accounts 73% of the Fortune 500 companies have Twitter accounts; with the industry leaders being food consumer products, specialty retailers, and aerospace and defense (Barnes, Lescault, and Andonian, 2012).
Our fourth area to discuss is learning by surfing. In today’s world your ability to get a brief understanding to an in depth understanding of a topic is only a four step process:
1) Select a topic of interest.
2) Type the topic into a search engine.
3) Read about the topic.
4) Evaluate what you have searched for and just read.
Step 4 is the critical thinking skill that the computer can’t, at this time, do for you. The phrase “learning by surfing” is used here for the use of search engines for everything from basic inquiry about what a word means; to using the search engines in formal research for academic or business purposes and projects.
In conclusion, you can see why it is important to learn to effectively communicate through reading and writing. Talking to students along these lines will help the educator or parent to tap into student and young adult interests, and prepare them for their future.
References
Barnes, N.G., Lescault, A.M., & Andonian, J., Social media surge by the 2012 Fortune 500: Increase use of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and more. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmedia/2012fortune500/.
ComScore, Press release: comScore releases October 2012 U.S. search engine rankings. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/11/comScore_Releases_October_2012_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings.
Taylor, C., Does Twitter have half a billion users? Mashable Social Media. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from http://mashable.com/2012/07/30/twitter-users-500-million/.
Vance, A., (2012). Facebook: The making of 1 billion users. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-04/facebook-the-making-of-1-billion-users
Copyright 2012
