Facebook has a purpose!?

In an article the length that Hedges would have described as unable to keep our attention, Scribner took a different approach on literacy that was different from previous articles.  In addition, Thompson’s article approached the subject with an optimistic perspective.  The tones in these pieces were quite the opposite of Hedges and Carr’s works.  Scribner addresses how literacy is defined and tested.  She talks about how the definition of literacy in this country changes over time and is not static.  Scribner says literacy takes on three metaphors: Literacy as Adaptation, Literacy as Power, and Literacy as a State of Grace.  She is stating that literacy can change in its meaning, that literate people often hold power in the society and that we look upon literate people with admiration.  The last metaphor was slightly confusing to me.  Thompson goes on to address how literacy has changed in our society and talks about how we might be getting more literate.  In the Stanford study that he cites, thousands of student works were examined with the conclusion that students have a better sense of whom they are writing to today.  With so many out of class uses for writing, students have a better idea of their audience.  I found this interesting and very believable.  Looking back on my blog posts from this quarter, I hardly recognize my own writing.  Having never written on a blog before, I’m not used to the audience that I now have.  I don’t notice it when I’m writing, it must be subconscious, but I definitely change my writing style to adapt to the new form.  Many students across the country do not attend Stanford and plenty don’t even attend college.  Those that do, have been taught how to write by numerous teachers.  My concern is with those that do not have competent teachers and cannot write in any form besides the way they text and chat on facebook.  As the Stanford study presented, those ways of writing do help us in finding our audience but not if they are the only ways one writes.