In Black and Write

“In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.”

Donald Miller

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Let’s Discuss Facebook in Academia

My initial thoughts answer these questions:

• Do you see a connection between writing for FB and writing for school? Why or why not?

• How might FB play a role in academic learning?

No, I do not see much of a connection with what is written on FB and academic writing. Most FB posts I see are 100% devoid of punctuation, full of mis-spelled words–often times on purpose–and either consist of sentence fragments and/or run-on sentences. I feel that FB is actually a hindrance to academic writing, as it is a forum that does not have any set of boundaries. A FB user can post whatever he or she likes without any concern for standard grammar rules, who the audience might consist of, or if what is being said is based in fact or not. Similar to Wikipedia, it is not a useful medium for academic writing. Though I see no merit in utilizing FB for academic purposes, it does play a role in learning. A negative one in my opinion, between texting and social media a great majority of people in the world feel more and more strongly that traditional grammar rules are superfluous; as they can get their point, their message, across just fine without any grammatical consideration. This is a dangerous point of view, as without proper punctuation a reader could misconstrue the meaning of a post or private message and take offense, becoming extremely hurt or angered by the words. I feel it is similar to the MSGC problem discussed in the Miller article, ignorance and avoidance leaves a hole in learning, once something is out of sight it is out of mind, and without consideration of these rules for writing out message cannot be delivered or received properly to readers. Facebook is a detriment to academic learning.

My Post-Reading Thoughts

After reading this article I have changed my mind! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S875546151500002X

Shepherd’s study found interesting results; ultimately, he found that students do not consciously see a connection between Facebook and first year composition classes. However, he also found that though the students themselves do not see the connection, it is, indeed, there; as many students use the same skills in both FYC courses and FB use. Perhaps these findings are due to the taboo associated with FB. Facebook is often seen as a personal space for friends and new connections, it is not seen as a formal arena for academic work. A stigma exists that places Facebook in a separate sphere as other technology platforms considered more suited to academia. Before reading this article, I felt Facebook was not and could not be useful in academic writing, but after reading about Shepherd’s study I agree with his statement that “Facebook may prove to be a very useful tool in demonstrating applications of skills typically learned in first-year-composition classes to other writing contexts.”(87)

Though Shepherd stated his goal in the “Conclusion” section of the article, I feel his real goal was to remove this stereotype associated with Facebook use. His study created discourse to continue research in this field, perhaps separating the world into separate fields without acknowledging the connections between them is the wrong decision. Shepherd even provides ideas for further research and ways to implement Facebook use into composition classrooms. At the time of this study, and even today, Facebook and other social network sites are heavily used, especially among high school and college age students. A plethora of studies could be conducted with the same goals and questions as Shepherd, social media is so embedded in our society that it seems only logical for composition instructors to utilize the universal usage to help their students’ writing.

Shepherd Summary – What is it even about?

Ryan P. Shepherd’s 2015 Computer and Composition article, “FB in FYC: Facebook Use Among First-year Composition Students,” encourages composition instructors to further expand their students’ definitions of composition by including Facebook in classroom settings. He utilizes the statistics from the study to showcase that a connection exists between skills learned in composition classes and student Facebook uses. The existence of the connection, in his opinion, provides opportunity for teachers to apply composition practices to students’ personal lives, “Facebook may prove to be a very useful tool in demonstrating applications of skills.” (Shepherd 87) Ultimately, Shepherd intended to recommend another tool for teachers to utilize during instruction in order to further expand students’ definition of composition to include diverse communication platforms.