3 Tips to Encourage Literacy for the Twitter Generation

Stimulating literacy in the younger generations has always been a struggle, but none as difficult as the current tech generation. With things like autocorrect, Microsoft Word, text prediction, and a myriad other inventions that promote lackadaisical spelling and grammar usage, there’s little wonder as to why the Twitter generation has a hard time grasping how to work through their reading and writing issues. Here are a few ways to help encourage attention to detail and promote literacy within this new generation.

Image via topgold (Flickr Creative Commons)

Utilize the Terminology
Some of the terminology within the Twitterverse can be utilized as a learning tool. For example, most of us know the hashtag symbol (#) as a number sign. For a lot of the Twitter generation, it is simply a hashtag, used to promote whatever it is they’re thinking or referencing. Since the hashtag revolution surrounds cramming words together, start breaking them apart and bring up the parts of speech they belong to. You can also begin by asking what the meaning of the words are, their appropriate spelling, and why the word was used in the first place. This technique is especially beneficial for kids in their younger years whom have just started using social media and technology.

Suggest People to Follow
First and foremost, find out what your young friend wants to do with their career in the future. Once you’ve talked about this, explain how important it is to keep up with their industry and begin building a personal learning network (PLN). This network should be comprised of people within the industry, and some who have the same interests and ambitions. You might also want to suggest different online trade magazines that have articles which can be shared via social media while also reminding your young friend to mention the people they are following in their tweets. This will help show that they are interested and willing to learn more about the industry on their own.

Tweet and Report
Staying active with Twitter is vital for creating networks and keeping students engaged. When it comes to the people the Twitter generation follow and abide by, you need to stay engaged. One way to do this is to get them to start reporting to you what is being said on their Twitter feed by those in their industry. Once you’ve begun talking to them and getting the verbal report, you can begin moving to a more written report. Don’t bring this up as a “report” or “essay” but as practice for their industry. Have them figure out which writing style their industry abides by and suggest that they start writing based on what they’ve learned.

For example, if they want to start looking into the marketing industry or the technology industry have them research and see how they can easily compare all HTC phones on a site. Then have them write a mock proposal based on that comparison and potentially upload it to a Dropbox account and tweet the link. This way they can bring providers into it by hashtagging them, and mentioning HTC in their tweet about the comparisons. This way they have something to add to their professional portfolio (yes that should be started young) and they have found a way to make Twitter more than just a means to follow the trends.

These are but a few ways to bring literacy and professionalism into the world of Twitter and put it on the forefront for the younger generations to utilize. By staying involved and bringing a little bit of fun into an otherwise tedious project, you’ll be able to help increase the literacy of several young minds.

Emily Green is a freelance writer with more than six years’ experience in blogging, copywriting, content, SEO, and dissertation, technical and thesis writing.