Welcome
Dive into my portfolio showcasing my perspective on contemporary literacies and the unfortunate issues we have as a society due to social media.
Discover MoreAbout Me
Hi again! This is my page for a project during my fall semester at UNCG. My journey with traditional literacy began in the household, but wasn’t established until I started school. The elementary school that I attended encouraged reading and made it out to be fun and competitive. During my school years, this traditional notion of literacy was positively reinforced. Our success was measured in our ability to master grammar, spelling, and reading. I found comfort in most areas early on except the writing. It was something that I enjoyed but was hesitant to do because of the fear of judgment and negative feedback on my writing and creativity.
Over the past decade, my perception of literacy has grown significantly. As digital media became more integral in my personal and professional life, I was introduced to many new forms of literacy, it became essential that I learned to navigate the world that was increasingly dominated by screens, multimedia, and online communication. My journey through the literacies so far is far from complete. Literacy remains central to my identity and will continue to shape how I interact with the world around me.
Proposal
Challenge: Today’s world is increasingly reliant on technology, more specifically social media, and it is becoming a huge part of our lives. In a study by Poushter et al. (2018) shows a report on the global social media trends and how it's growing around the world. Influencing how we communicate, learn, and interact with one another. Social media intersects with contemporary media literacies in numerous ways, including critical thinking, creation and collaboration, social and cultural understanding, technical skills, and ethical considerations. Even though social media is widely used, many young people lack the necessary skills to understand and think critically about digital content.
Innovative Solution: We can integrate visual rhetoric into media literacy education, have professional development for educators, host parental engagement programs, and organizational initiatives. For media literacy education, there can be a development of educational programs that teach students how to critically analyze visual elements in digital media, aiding them to a better understanding and engagement. Training workshops can be offered to educators to equip them with the skills necessary to teach visual rhetoric effectively.
Compelling Evidence:
- Students or adolescents in general serve as the primary users of social media and tend to be the most vulnerable to the negative impacts. According to Odgers and Jensen (2020), while digital media platforms can pose a place for communication, however, “specific potential harms of social media for well‐being that were identified included: increased social isolation, depression, and cyberbullying”(p.5). The lack of media literacy skills makes it difficult to properly navigate through these challenges.
- Educators face the challenge of combining media literacy with the curriculum which is recognized solely as traditional literacy. Without those resources or training, they can’t teach the students to be prepared for the issues they may face in the digital world. Not being equipped can make it difficult for parents to guide their children in developing healthy habits.
- Organizations, more specifically the workplace, the lack of media literacy can have an impact on collaboration and productivity of the employees. From personal experience, it can have a positive impact if you’re well versed within the contemporary media and traditional literacies vs those who aren’t. Unfortunately, those who are not versed in the literacies see little to no forward growth within an organization or career. Bingham and Conner (2015) emphasize that “our inherent drive to learn together can be facilitated through emerging technologies that extend, widen, and deepen our reach. More so than any other technology, social media allows us to embrace the needs of changing workplace demographics and enables people of all ages to learn in ways that are comfortable and convenient for them”(p.xvii).
Multi-Genre Showcase
1. Literacies Memoir: A Reflection on Words and Understanding
2. Visual Image: Decoding Messages in Street Art
3. Captivating Video Presentation
Impactful Conclusion
The gap in media literacy education with the growing use of social media poses a challenge to our society. If it goes unaddressed this problem can lead to a continued decline in the quality of social skills, an increase in anxiety, more specifically social anxiety, and a decline in those who are equipped for the digital world that we are moving towards. With that, the inability to engage and analyze digital content can lead to the spread of misinformation, increased social tension, and a generation of unprepared individuals for the technically demanding economy. To resolve this issue we as a society have to look into what it means to be literate, put an emphasis on integrating visual rhetoric concepts in media literacy education in our schools, promote professional development for our educators, and start implementing policies within the workplace that informs individuals about media literacy and encourages positive and responsible use of the digital media. Putting the solutions into place will not only improve individual's wellbeing, but it can positively impact the society as a whole, by proactively strengthening social bonds, improving productivity, and promoting the growth of social and analytical skills amongst the younger generation. Preparing them for the future ahead.
Critical Insights
My experience has shown me that literacy goes beyond decoding symbols and meanings, it involves participating in the practices and dialogues that give those symbols that we notice meaning. With the world continually evolving, so too our understanding and application of literacy will evolve with it. With what I once believed literacy being confined to reading and writing has now been replaced with a better and more complex understanding of a diverse set of skills necessary to understand and to make meaning of an interconnected world.
Resources
- Bingham, T., & Conner, M. (2015). The new social learning: A guide to transforming organizations through social media (2ns ed.). ATD Press
- Morris, J., Lehmann, W., & Dvorak, K. (2019). Social media and communication centers: An introduction. Communication Center Journal, 5(1). https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/M_Jensen_Annual_2020.pdf
- Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual research review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age – Opportunities and obstacles for addressing youth well-being in the digital environment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 354–367.https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ccj/article/view/1947
- Poushter, J., Bishop, C., & Chwe, H. (2018). Social media use continues to rise in developing countries but plateaus across developed ones. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/06/19/social-media-use-continues-to-rise-in-developing-countries-but-plateaus-across-developed-ones/
- • Zhong, B. (Ed.). (2021). Social media communication: Trends and theories. Routledge