Talking about new literacy reminds me of when people used to argue whether graffiti was art or not. Graffiti, like this new [internet] literacy, at first may seem dirty, uneducated, chaotic, and savage. Graffiti used to be seen as the work of criminals; however, now most of the people understand it doesn't necessarily is, and graffiti is now appreciated as another art form and widely accepted. Similarly, new internet literacy may look like a crime compared to academic writing because it doesn't follow the traditional format of writing because it doesn't have to.
When someone writes in the internet they are not thinking that their English teacher will suddenly appear behind their shoulder, hit their heads with a dictionary, and scream in their ear: "Oh my god! that's not how you write "laughing out loud! Are you insane?" They know that the only purpose of this new internet literacy is to get your point across —even if that means using emoticons, abbreviations, and terminology that only they and their audience understand—
What makes this new literacy different than writing for school is that it is informal writing. People do not talk in person as much as they used to do before because there has been a shift on how people communicate compared to twenty years ago when practically no one had internet. Instead, people nowadays text and message each other, which is why when texting first emerged, and you only had a numeric pad to write your thoughts in your phone, people created new ways to input text without spending so much time pressing buttons. This is how OMG, LOL, ASAP, etc,. came to life.
I bet every time new technology appears that adds to our communication channels, the way we communicate changes with it, and I bet some people also complained when TV first appeared. I wasn't there but I can imagine my grandpa saying something like: " TV will destroy us; everyone will become idiots." No, we didn't became idiots, and the internet won't destroy our ability to write properly either.
This new internet literacy is here to stay and even thou it may annoy the heck out of some people it does serves a purpose: to remotely communicate and exchange ideas with others. Also, it is not like students can't tell the difference between academic writing and this new internet literacy. We can tell the difference and tailor the writing to fit the proper audience.
Gabriel Hernandez
