Social Media, A Good(-Spirited) Change in Scenery in

Writing Development?

By: Luis Carrasco

Lucas walked into their dorm after a long day's work, and immediately
went to sleep. The time was understood to be about 2:00 AM, and by the
time he woke up, it was 12:00 AM. It seemed to be an exhausting week for
him since there was so much schoolwork he had to finish before then, but
nevertheless he got through it. All it took was for him to finish his work…

“Ah, no! Are you seriously telling me I overslept? It’s 30 minutes

before my class starts and I have to do a presentation on social media!” as
Lucas tells his roommate, very obviously asleep. “Ah, whatever, I have to
immediately get going. I don’t want to be late!”. As he gets clothed and gets
his keys, he tries to remember what he studied and what he has to
remember what to say, but he just can’t. He has about 25 minutes left to
get to his class, but it’s about a 30 minute walk before he gets there. All the
campus’ traversal vehicles are all out for today, and he forgot his bike at
home the week before. All he can do is keep walking to get there.

“Okay, remember, remember… surely you can remember this, no? I

have to…” as Lucas thought in his mind. It seemed like it was going to be a
long day, yet again. “If only…”, and before he could even finish his
sentence, [number of] spirits came to help him with his work. The spirits
keep whispering in his ear, just to get his attention. “Oh! Am I dreaming?
Surely not… more like a nightmare…”

“Aha! We aren't actually your nightmares are we? Considering you’ve

been on social media for so long…” asked the unknown spirit. Lucas
begins to get a disappointed look on his face, considering he’s heard from
a few people that social media isn’t good for school, at least not by a good
margin. “Oh, don’t be so grim. I actually think it's great!”, as Lucas begins to
have a confused look on his face. “Wait, wait… seriously?!? And after all
this time thinking about it! I’m sorry, but I also don’t know who you are all?
You’re spirits, which is super confusing too…”

The spirits finally tell Lucas their names. They all turn out to be
named Beemt, Buss, Hoyos, Fajardo, and Ariantini after a horrifying,
exhausting Meet & Greet… of approximately 20 seconds. “Alright, now that
we have our names settled… Why do you think social media is good
anyways? I got sidetracked during the middle of the day before I started
writing about my presentation, and all of the information flew out of my
head - no joke.” “Well, I guess we’re flying back in to tell you all the info
you need to know… sorry, bad joke.” All the spirits then floated above his
head, almost like his mind was speaking to him, that feeling when you
close your eyes and you see pure darkness - but, the spirits are here.
Beemt and company then began to tell him everything that is to know about
social media.

“Well, I guess it's one thing that social media overuse is bad, as with
anything else used more than needed. However, while some teachers may
think it's out to get their students, it’s actually a great tool regarding today’s
youth and curriculum,” Beemt began. Lucas asked, “How so? I mean
people my age like looking at their phone as much as I do, but wouldn’t it
be really weird if one day everyone started using technology, including our
own teachers?” Beemt replied, “You're right! Teachers will have to grasp
the technological advances if we all want to continue forward! But, in terms
of social media, it will be able to help. At least from the research I had, of
course… a lot of studies have been done, but there is a catch.” “What’s
that?” “These studies aren't fully conclusive. They tend to have broad
questions like “Does Learning = More Social Media Use?”, which doesn’t
necessarily make the information good at face value, but it does help that
we start to seem more close to the actual fact at hand!”

“If I could chime in,” Ariantini asked, “I have found another set of info
about social media for learning, and it does help. A ton of studies have said
that it helps with English skills, grammar, and their spelling. Not to mention
greater vocabulary!”. Beemt told her, “but are you sure all of your studies
have said this?” Ariantini replied, “Well, no, not really… I wasn’t expecting
you to point it out…” “I will make none of you all tell false information to this
child!” As Lucas points out, he is literally 19. “Well, continue on.” Ariantini
said, “Even if not all the studies say the same thing, there are some that
don’t really grasp the full nature of this social media debacle! I mean, there
are tons of Youtube videos out there that EFL hasn’t tested out yet on
research!” Lucas, with a confused look on his face, asks, “What is EFL?”
Ariantini happily replies that, “EFL is English as a foreign language! It’s
pretty much English language learning from a different perspective than
Americans! A lot of videos on youtube (and not to mention the spell
checker feature) haven't been used to their fullest potential yet! At least,
from the research done, social media does help extend learning at best,
especially with Facebook, since it isn’t the most used out of the 32 studies
I’ve sampled.”

“Huh, the more you know!” Lucas exclaimed, “What the? It's barely
been two min-” “I’m sure it's just time dilation. Don’t sweat it" "Oh, ok…”

Buss & Hoyos both replied with a little bit of their magic. Hoyos said
“While teaching is good in-person and all, and people could use paper, but
by expanding the use of social media into its educational foundation, we’ll
be able to make it exciting and full-of-life that wasn’t there already. It
causes education to be experienced not just in school, but outside of it, as
well. There would be language issues too, as Ariantini pointed out, but as
long as there is a sort of translation, it is fine.” Buss replies with, “Well,
that’s true. But don’t forget the open landscape abroad on social media! We
could use these social media and websites to make more collaborative
work with each student and be able to work together on multiple
assignments, thus making it easier for not only easier chatting, but more
aware teachers on how far students are with their work!”

Fajardo, while not speaking, wanted to input his help as well. “Well, I
don’t really talk much. But what I do know is that all of this shows that
social media does have a lot of connections with students. That doesn’t
mean its a full distraction. They can interact with university platforms,
especially the school’s own social media accounts! TikTok especially, since
it has a more creative flow when it comes to creating one. It brings about
“imagination”, as one would say.”

They all circle around Lucas and tell him that, “Social media can be
used for good learning opportunities. While you may have thought about it
being bad at first - maybe it isn’t as bad as it may have seemed.” Lucas
replied with “Huh, I guess you're right. But hey, we’ve been talking for quite
some time. How has a minute only gone by. Actually, why did it-”. As Lucas
began to understand, his mind felt like it had been hit with such a hard rock.
Lucas, without realizing, immediately stood up from his being. “Uh, 10:00 in
the morning? I really want to go back to sleep…”. But as he tried to, there
was no escape. He realized that he fully remembered everything he
needed to present. “Huh, I guess I just needed a simple break. What a
good morning.”

Works Cited

To be Decided - Still have to understand a bit more

resources.