Taylor Grant Professor Adam Padgett English 1102 3 February, 2014 Social Medias effect on education and social

skills Context Social media plays a role in my life, but I dont believe that it plays as big a role for me as it does for some of my fellow students and friends. I use twitter and Instagram daily, I would say I open the applications about ten times a day for about 15 minutes each. I have a Facebook as well, but I only use it for the clubs and team that I am on for school. I also have a snapchat but I only open it at maximum twice a day. I use the internet daily for school purposes because I have many classes that are hybrid (50% online) and most of my current classes have online test and quizzes weekly. There are many problems that social media creates with communication and social skills especially in the academic setting. Eighty percent of teen internet users visit social media sites so its no surprise our social lives are also seeing some changes. Social media sites like Twitter and Snapchat that have a character limit that force users to compress their thoughts. This then results in excessive use of textspeak. (Textspeak is a term use for the type of shorthand involved while texting.) As an example of overuse, Facebook has no text or character limit but people still use textspeak and abbreviations when posting statuses. Textspeak involves a whole new language of abbreviations. Textspeak overuses abbreviations and slang terms and is not appropriate for every setting, especially in academic settings. Social media users need to learn the correct time and place for different types of writing. In the academic setting textspeak is unprofessional and should never be used. This is something that students need to realize. One
Comment [AP3]: This is interesting, because I try to avoid using textspeak whenever possible. Comment [AP2]: How do you know this number? Comment [AP1]: How do you know? How much do you suppose your peers are on these media? Why arent you on it as much as they are? Are you assuming that they are on it too much?

article written by the Seattle Times stated, Text speak may be appropriate for a quick note to a friend, but professors are increasingly stymied by how casually students are using the terms. Professor Alejo Enriquez of Cal State states in his syllabus "Despite the fact that I happen to be perfectly capable of reading any incoherent drivel you may send to my (e-mail) inbox directly from your phone keypad, 'wut up ya I cnt make it 2 clss lol' is insanely unprofessional." This shows that students truly need to learn how and when to use textspeak because it can negatively impact your education. In a society where interacting online is normal people are usually more likely to speak to friends and family through electronic devices rather than face-to-face. Is too much time on social media and electronic devices ruining our social skills? Some studies and current research say so. A study administered for online casino Yazino found that one in four people spend more time socializing online, through sites such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, rather than in person. As more generations use social media, it will most likely continue to be the preferred communication among young adults. Nonetheless this change might begin to affect young peoples ability to accurately communicate in face to face with their friend, family and employers. The Yazino study also found that even when there is a time to see people in person, up to 11% of adults still prefer to stay at home and communicate on their social devices instead. Even though being in the know on social media is popular and convenient, socializing online should be done in moderation or not at all when in the presence of other people. People will gain much more from having a face to face personal conversation with a friends than from being on social media and the internet.
Comment [AP6]: True. Comment [AP5]: Im not seeing how it can negatively affect you education. But I can see how it alters a persons understanding of appropriateness of writing in a particular genre. Comment [AP4]: Ha!

Inquiry How does social media stunt the growth of communication that is needed for a person to lead a professional life within their career and their education? Will the next generation be more immersed in social networking? And if so how will this affect their communication and social skills? How to professors see students who sent emails in textspeak? Does this affect the student standing in class? Will face to face contact eventually cease to exist or even be rendered unnecessary? Next steps My research will lead to finding out more about how lack of face to face contact and social interaction in youth are affected by social media. I am also going to research how social media creates many educational problems. For example how unprofessional and abbreviated writings can be and how this affects the way the professor sees you and your standing in the class. I intend to find more cases and studies proving how abbreviated writings can majorly affect your education. Lastly I am going to research about social skills and how social media is consuming so much of a childs time that they arent learning the proper things at the proper pace. Taylor, I think youve asked some really interesting questions here and questions that are worthwhile. You seem most interested in discussing how social media and technology will and has impacted the way we communication, for better or for worse, and how it will or has influenced our professional selves. This makes me think of the gains and losses of technology (the printing
Comment [AP8]: I think this is an easy one to answer. Comment [AP7]: I think this questions has the most potential of the inquiry youve posed below.

press and the gain of literacy, but the loss of penmanship). Considering how much information

we share these days, it is disconcerting to think of how much information will be available on the Internet in the next several years. What should the youth be concerned about? How should we edit our digital selves? All great questions, and I look forward to seeing how these ideas develop over the next papers.