Books
Of course, as a child growing up when it still wasn’t totally commonplace for middle class families to have boatloads of technology devices, my first encounter with literacy technology was in books. Sure, we had a clunky desktop computer, but only my parents used it for the most part. We also didn’t have cable TV until I was in middle school, I think. My point being: unlike the kids you see today that are five years old and can work an iPad better than I can, books were all I had in the beginning. In short, my voracious reading habits are probably the reason I am now an English major and love to write myself. You always hear that to be a good writer, you must be a good reader. I believe this is true, and I can easily trace influences in my own writing. This is just the traditional sense of using language, though. What are some others?
Movies
I’m glad you (I) asked! Another technology that was formational for me was movies. Though sort of similar to books, movies are oftentimes more present in pop culture so they had a bit of a different effect on my development as a human and communicator. One of the biggest things movies (and, to a lesser degree, books) helped me to do was better establish social connections. I was able to use the language of these texts to bond with other people. What I mean by this is I could find people with the same favorite things as me and use the language of a certain piece of media to converse with them in our own little dialect. This made it easier to make friends, especially for shy, nerdy me. For example, I cannot tell you how many friends I made my freshman year of high school by talking about the Twilight books/movies. (I was Team Jacob, btw.) Obviously this is embarrassing now (not the Team Jacob thing – I stand by that decision), but you get the point.
And I also do this same sort of thing with my family. For example, my mom, my sister and I watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film probably twice a week when I was in high school. We all took to quoting it at each other in everyday conversation, with even my dad joining in with incorrect quotes sometimes. There’s this one part where Lady Catherine says to Col. Fitzwilliam, “Fitzwilliam, I need you!” in her super British, posh, commanding, Dame Judy Dench voice. To this day my mom still says this to call me over to her.
The Internet
So my best friend (who I have known since I was like two) has brothers that are 5+ years older than her. Therefore growing up with her, I knew a lot of things about the Internet before the other kids I knew. I’m pretty sure my friend was one of the first people who had a YouTube account. Okay maybe not one of the first, but we were hanging around there and watching the muffins video, the numa numa song, the llama song, etc. etc. as very young, impressionable little things. And weirdly, I think this exposure shaped the way I use humor as well as the way I use the Internet to this day…or maybe I was always doomed to have a ridiculously stupid and quirky sense of humor. We will never know.
See below: my childhood.
I still know every word to this song, sadly.
Of course, as a child growing up when it still wasn’t totally commonplace for middle class families to have boatloads of technology devices, my first encounter with literacy technology was in books. Sure, we had a clunky desktop computer, but only my parents used it for the most part. We also didn’t have cable TV until I was in middle school, I think. My point being: unlike the kids you see today that are five years old and can work an iPad better than I can, books were all I had in the beginning. In short, my voracious reading habits are probably the reason I am now an English major and love to write myself. You always hear that to be a good writer, you must be a good reader. I believe this is true, and I can easily trace influences in my own writing. This is just the traditional sense of using language, though. What are some others?
Movies
I’m glad you (I) asked! Another technology that was formational for me was movies. Though sort of similar to books, movies are oftentimes more present in pop culture so they had a bit of a different effect on my development as a human and communicator. One of the biggest things movies (and, to a lesser degree, books) helped me to do was better establish social connections. I was able to use the language of these texts to bond with other people. What I mean by this is I could find people with the same favorite things as me and use the language of a certain piece of media to converse with them in our own little dialect. This made it easier to make friends, especially for shy, nerdy me. For example, I cannot tell you how many friends I made my freshman year of high school by talking about the Twilight books/movies. (I was Team Jacob, btw.) Obviously this is embarrassing now (not the Team Jacob thing – I stand by that decision), but you get the point.
And I also do this same sort of thing with my family. For example, my mom, my sister and I watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film probably twice a week when I was in high school. We all took to quoting it at each other in everyday conversation, with even my dad joining in with incorrect quotes sometimes. There’s this one part where Lady Catherine says to Col. Fitzwilliam, “Fitzwilliam, I need you!” in her super British, posh, commanding, Dame Judy Dench voice. To this day my mom still says this to call me over to her.
The Internet
So my best friend (who I have known since I was like two) has brothers that are 5+ years older than her. Therefore growing up with her, I knew a lot of things about the Internet before the other kids I knew. I’m pretty sure my friend was one of the first people who had a YouTube account. Okay maybe not one of the first, but we were hanging around there and watching the muffins video, the numa numa song, the llama song, etc. etc. as very young, impressionable little things. And weirdly, I think this exposure shaped the way I use humor as well as the way I use the Internet to this day…or maybe I was always doomed to have a ridiculously stupid and quirky sense of humor. We will never know.
See below: my childhood.
I still know every word to this song, sadly.
The point is my use of this technology (in a variety of forms – text, video, photo, sound) has done two things. 1. It has affected my writing style to where I am able to incorporate pop culture references into blog posts such as this while still using academic terminology like "literacy technologies." 2. On the whole social side of my argument, I can find interesting or funny things that I share with my friends, again establishing social connections. And that is still what I do when I send my sister an Instagram post by betches or share a Buzzfeed “Which Marauder are you?” quiz to a friend’s Facebook wall or quickly pull up a relevant Parks and Recreation gif to use when texting someone. Which brings me to…
Bonus: my phone!
Confession: I often really miss my flip phone. The thing is, having a smart phone is just so much more convenient, and I hate that because flip phones are so fun and you can dramatically snap them closed after intense conversations. But really, my phone is honestly just the culmination of my use of all other types of literacy technology. This is interesting because I have related all the technologies I’ve mentioned to communication and social connection, and this is the very purpose of a cell phone. Funny how that works out, no?
Bonus: my phone!
Confession: I often really miss my flip phone. The thing is, having a smart phone is just so much more convenient, and I hate that because flip phones are so fun and you can dramatically snap them closed after intense conversations. But really, my phone is honestly just the culmination of my use of all other types of literacy technology. This is interesting because I have related all the technologies I’ve mentioned to communication and social connection, and this is the very purpose of a cell phone. Funny how that works out, no?