Are children who use technology really better writers?
Does blogging and text messaging help kids become better writers? Check out what the National Literacy Trust found out.
“Children who use technology are ‘better writers’.” So says a headline on the BBC website. The headline relates to a survey by the UK’s National Literacy Trust which explored children’s use of technology to write and their attitude towards writing. Some of the study’s key finding included:
- 75% of young people said that they write regularly.
- 61% had a blog.
- 45% said that they enjoy writing.
- 89% said that writing with a computer enables them to more easily correct mistakes.
- 60.7% of kids with a blog think they are good or very good writers, but only 47.3% of kids without a blog think that they are good or very good writers.
Some people may read the BBC’s headline and assume that blogging and instant messaging make kids more literate, but that may not be the case. Sure, kids with blogs probably are better writers than those without, but it’s almost certainly not blogging that makes them better. The fact is that kids who are good at writing are more likely to have blogs than those who are not. Similarly, kids who are good at soccer are more likely to be on a soccer team than those who are not. This is simply commonsense – like adults, kids tend to enjoy the things they are good at and do what they enjoy.
But is an enthusiasm for communication via blogging and instant messaging more or less important than being able to spell correctly and string together a grammatically correct sentence that isn’t riddled with non-standard English and text messaging abbreviations?
WDYT? LEMENO!
Hey Rhonda, I too am concerned about the prevalence of texting and IMing amongst kids who are growing up never having known a world without those technologies. But I also feel that practice makes perfect. If more kids are writing (any kind of writing – even bad writing!) now that tools like blogs are available to them, they will become better over time. The difference between this generation and previous generations, is in how writing is used. Prior to the advent of email, texting, blogging or tweeting, writing was something most of us used for school work, the occasional personal letter or work. Now, writing is everywhere – a consant throughout our lives whether at work or play. It seems inevitable that this environment will ultimately produce more “good” writers than in the past, simply because more people write, more often.
Concerns on this matter are well warranted. It stands to reason that more exposure to the subject of writing will improve our youths ability to write. The fact still remains that they are increasingly taking short cuts in their sentence structure, using acronyms and words that don’t exist at all. Ultimately our language is on the decline because these kids don’t even know what our language is capable of. After all, ignorance is bliss, and I’m sure we are all guilty of that. I think anyone would be surprised at the lack of comprehension across the board. Blogger or not, the new generation needs to learn some new words, and proper spelling of the ones they “think” they already know.
Hi I am a grade 10 student with an IEP I have a laptop givin to me by the goverment becuase I can’t right well you cant read my writhing and I can’t spell that good but with the laptop I can get progects and esays done with out geting them handed back by the teacher syaing they cant read it redo it know I can spell better two
Hi,
having a blog, will not make anyone a “better” writer – sheer volume does not denote excellence. However, having a critique of the writing skills and learning how to improve may help them.
I have a friend, that took 4 years of University, is educated in Journalism and currently writing her “life memoir.” After a year into writing the memoir, her publishing company realized they needed to bring in a professional collaborator to finish it off (not good in my opinion). So, apparently, even education does not make anyone a better writer. BTW, this was from a person that, for a time, was very consistent in writing blogs.