“‘Tomorrow will not be like today’: Literacy and identity in a world of multiliteracies” by Bronwyn T.Williams addresses the way young people interact socially online and offline in the age of social media. The article opens with a description of an adolescent girl and her day after she gets home from school. She and a friend call each other on the phone and multitask with ICQ, a MOO, homework, private chats, and the phone conversation. The girl’s activities aren’t unique to her, however, because Williams interviews other students with very similar habits. The generation currently in its teens is known for doing a thousand things at once, and this article provides an example in the form of a direct quote from that particular teen.
Similarly to a few of our readings so far, Williams points out that identities online are much different from identities offline, even referencing the 90’s comic caption, “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog,” that we discussed in class. People can form their online selves in a way that would be more difficult offline, in a way that we can more easily hide physical and cultural characteristics.
Williams suggests that our online involvement with pop culture has influenced our ways of creating online identities, because of the way it shapes our social interactions through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. “Students I have talked with tell me that the song a person has playing on a MySpace page, or the list of that person’s favorite movies, may be a decisive factor in determining whether to interact with the person online. In fact, some scholars (Jenkins, 2006; Livingstone, 2002) have pointed out that
Williams suggests that our online involvement with pop culture has influenced our ways of creating online identities, because of the way it shapes our social interactions through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. “Students I have talked with tell me that the song a person has playing on a MySpace page, or the list of that person’s favorite movies, may be a decisive factor in determining whether to interact with the person online. In fact, some scholars (Jenkins, 2006; Livingstone, 2002) have pointed out that
popular culture is one of the most powerful organizing forces in determining where young people go online and with whom they interact.” (684) The end of the article points out that Facebook and other social networking tools could be good learning tools as well, and could be used to bring classrooms closer together.
I would definitely recommend this article. It was well written and insightful on the topic of the younger generation’s use of social media and its potential uses within the classroom. Harnessing the community aspect of social networking for the good of the class seems like the logical next step, since its rise in popularity.
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