Well, it's a good thing I took the day off from work today so that I could adequately address the mania that is Facebook. I have received about a million friend requests and confirmations--from people I haven't seen in years! It is crazy. I have accepted the concept of social networking, and watched a very helpful instructional tool on the internet. You can find it at:
Before you get all huffy and like, "wow, it sure would be nice to take a day off just to work on my Facebook account" you should know that I have also been cleaning up 2-year-old vomit all morning (the vomiter is 2-yrs-old, not the actual vomit; that would make me a really terrible housekeeper and I am only moderately terrible). Trust me, I would much rather be cleaning up the verbal vomit spewed forth by adolescents that is my usual day job.
The expansion of the realm of literacy that has reached out across the world wide web has, indeed, changed the way we think about reading. Sometimes I forget this, but not for too long, as I often receive final draft essays with any combination of the following: "b/c"; "caus"; "OMG"; "BTW"; and "j/k" (really? yes). Maybe being a part of Facebook will help me to become more in tune with current trends in literacy and word de-coding.
2 comments:
you are completely ready for facebook and I'm so glad you are there.
FYI - I'm sorry about the vomit. Eloise threw up at least 6 times from 13 months to 2. It was awful. I'm hoping I'll be spared this year. It will be one year in February. I'm fairly certain the moment we hit feb, she'll start vomitting.
Molly:
I think you are gracious to refer to the aforementioned as an "expansion of the realm of literacy." Certainly, these kind of expressions found in text messaging and chat venues are valid forms of communication, but I despair that they would actually be submitted in a formal essay. Wow! It seems that using "OMG" in a paper would be like "cussing a blue streak" while talking on the phone to your boss. Not contextualized. Inappropriate.
I applaud your efforts to expand. That's why I am on FB. Many of my friends decry the lack of connection in today's world, saying we often don't know our neighbors' names. True, but we avoid the social tools that are in use today. This is one of them. Modernization isn't easy!
But let's hang tough! Here's to English teachers! Here's to reading! And here's to a love of the language, recognizing that it is alive, and changing!
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