Who Are You?: Constructing Identity in New Literacies

As a product of the Digital Age, my everyday routine is steeped in a variety of communication. In the mornings, I may send a text to a friend, give my mom a call, check any manner of social networking sites, reblog some things on my Tumblr, and read over an essay or two for class. All of this usually occurs way before noon hits. I can also remember the jarring, mechanical chime of our dialup connecting to the Internet. I do remember a time when I spent less than an hour online a day. Now, it’s hard to go even a couple hours without consulting the Web, especially when it’s so readily available. It may seem like a cautionary tale regarding the role of technology in our society – it very well could be – but all of these aspects in which I communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, aid in constructing my identity both as a sense of self and how others may construct an identity for me.

While I may remember an era before the Internet, my brother does not. Five years my junior, he practically came out of the womb with more Facebook friends than me. Adolescents are beginning to use technology at younger ages because these things are now important tools for interaction. Keeping with the Facebook example, it’s easy to see how it emphasizes the notion of identity. Pages are set up to inform others of our likes and dislikes; one literally “likes” a page, complete with a thumbs-up icon. Comparing my brother’s Facebook to mine, it’s obvious that he’s the more athletic one in the family. His interests range across all manner of sports, liking pages for our high school’s track and weightlifting teams. I’m a bit more bookish. The amount of books I’ve “liked” on Facebook severely outnumbers anything else. By this alone, my brother and I have both communicated to the public something about ourselves, whether we intended to or not.

In a case study entitled “'Tech-savviness’ Meets Multiliteracies: Exploring Adolescent Girls’ Technology-Mediated Practices'” by Kelly Chandler-Olcott and Donna Mahar, two adolescent girls are observed on how they use technology for more than just academic purposes. Of the two girls, one constructs webpages while the other participates in various mailing lists and message boards. These webpages and forums are directly related to the girls’ interests, chiefly being Japanese animation. Regarding the concept of identity, Chandler-Olcott and Mahar say that these identities are “influenced by our membership in numerous communities of practice” (363). If there is one thing the Internet excels at, it’s creating a sense of community. If knitting is relevant to your interests, there are countless sites filled with other individuals who just need to pick up a skein of yarn and a set of needles. In other sites like Facebook and LiveJournal, people are trying to encompass who they are for the purpose of interacting with others.

As adolescents are using these platforms at a younger age, the ability to create an identity is increasing. They are becoming literate in more than just a reading sense, but in terms of media as well. Media literacy is a broad term that boils down to the ability to communicate in a wide array of media – blogs, on paper, forums, video feed, etc. The Christian Science Monitor recently published an article by Anne Collier that had examined a study regarding the benefits of children being online and they function in these new types of literacy, mainly the use of social networking forums or SNF. These SNF “may provide unique opportunities for children to develop these kinds of new literacies and social practices” (Collier, “Kids online”).  Not only are kids and adolescents learning how to communicate things about themselves like their favorite foods or what movies they like, but they’re learning how to do it in a variety of technologies.

These new literacies aren’t just becoming more frequent in the lives of adolescents, but they’re also permeating aspects of education at all levels. In my own experiences at Florida State University, many of my classes incorporate exercises in which we interact with media. In one class in particular, we had to take one idea such as a book, a play, something that exists in a hardcopy and repurpose it for an entirely different and completely digital medium. FSU isn’t the only university to recognize the broadening definition of literacy. Peter Monaghan’s “More Than Words” examines the University of Southern California’s changing curriculum and how they’re making accommodations for new literacies.

“Once, literacy meant knowing how to read and understand text. But these days, advocates of a broader definition of literacy say students must be able to interpret not only words, but also still and moving images, understanding how those images are constructed, how they create meaning, and how they can deceive” (Monaghan, “More Than Words”).

But while the notion of what literacy is happens to be changing to make room for new technologies, the validity of these “new literacies” are undoubtedly being questioned and compared with the literacy of old. A majority of the things I read happen to be on a screen of some sort – laptop, phone, Nook – and whether or not I want to admit it, these things change how I read. Based upon a study by Web researcher, Jakob Nielson, more people are likely to skim content when it’s online. So while you may spend hours tweaking your blog just so and making sure it accurately conveys your personality, it’s quite possible that it may not even matter. The same goes with the content. Blocks upon blocks of text will either be skimmed or disregarded entirely, personifying the common Internet phrase: tl:dr.

Too long; didn’t read.

Regardless of how effective these multiliteracies are in conveying our identity, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re being utilized. Social networking sites are all about summing your identity up in a nutshell. Blogs are there to gripe about the struggles of the modern, young professional. Forums exist to express a love for black and white photography. If foundations are willing to dole out $50 million to incorporating these online literacies, they must be worth some consideration. Even you just want to design a webpage for your whimsical cat paintings. 

Analytic Reflection.

Works Cited

Chandler-Olcott, Kelly, and Donna Mahar. "Tech-savviness’ Meets Multiliteracies: Exploring Adolescent Girls’ Technology-Mediated Practices." Reading Research Quarterly. 38.3 (2003) : 356-385. Online.

Collier, Anne. "Kids online: Social media sites can help develop identity, study says." Christian Science Monitor. 31 Jan 2013. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.

Monaghan, Peter. "More Than Words." Chronicle for Higher Education. 52.45 (2006) : A33. Web. 5 Feb. 2013