Teens and Social Media
Thursday, December 27th by carlaLast week the Pew Internet and American Life Project released its report, Teens and Social Media. The home page summary discusses the findings about teens and how they use Web 2.0 tools.
As a writing teacher, though, I was very surprised by the format of the complete report. I expected bullet points and graphs, but I was not prepared for the impact of design choices in the document. For example, horizontal lines rest atop large-font summaries preceding a section of information, signalling the end of one part and the beginning of another visually instead of rhetorically. I was surprised at how short the sections were, most only 2 or 3 paragraphs. If a section of text grew much longer than that, it was consistently interrupted by a visual element such as a table or text box. The longest section of text began on p. 22 and ran for all of 6 paragraphs before there was a table, followed by another paragraph, and that was the end of the section.
Most of the text summarized in words what the data revealed. There was little analysis of the implications beyond catchphrases like “super-communicator.”
I’m preparing my students to write analytically and thoughtfully, starting with an idea and following it through. I don’t incorporate design elements into my teaching beyond an insistence on 1-inch margins, black ink, and a single, standard, 12-point font. (Come to think of it, the Pew report doesn’t observe those conventions consistently, either.) I teach them to use a style guide. I teach them to develop an argument. Developing those skills takes all the instructional time I have. The format of this report, though, suggests that I’m teaching the wrong things.
If I am to prepare my students for this kind of writing — and apparently I should be — what do I leave out?
