Social Networking

Reading and writing is just as vital to society as it always was. The business article "Literacy and Text Messaging" states that reading and writing has become more important because it is used for social networking. It is not more important, but it does become more important for adolescents who had no interest in reading and writing. They need to know both to allow for social networking. Literacy is on another level, though. I believe that proper literacy has more to do with reading and writing. Literacy gives you the ability to read a book, and when you see a word you have not seen before, you are able to sound it out, and in many cases learn what the word is by its different parts, like the stem of the word or its context in the sentence. IMing and text messaging do impact people's learning ability though, because people are IMing and texting at a younger age, developing bad habits that pertain to their reading and writing. I know that when I started IMing and text messaging, I would make shorthand mistakes in my school papers. I had to go back and fix those errors. I have learned to multi-task though, but with the advanced progression  in IMing and text messaging, this might not always be the case. Another issue with IMing and texting, or social networking in general, is how it does get in the way of academic performance. While students are doing homework, they are distracted by Facebook. At school, students are texting and it is something teachers now have to monitor and discipline. So, social networking has its benefits and negative impacts. It gives kids the desire to learn to read and write, and also teach them to multi-task. It is most definitely a distraction though. Not just when it comes to school work but while at the dinner table, or actually at work place, people are texting and being distracted. Its progression is instilling bad habits. Texting and driving has become a large problem. Negative and positive affects, but the cons outweigh the pros.