Techno Literacy

Cristian Moralez

English 1302- 20139

1/26/16

Narrative

Technology Literacy

Today, looking back at my life, I believe technology has not only changed my generation’s culture but also provided an enormous change in my literacy. With the use of technology, I believe my literacy skills have become weaker over time. The first time I used literacy in technology was in fifth grade when I typed up my first essay on “How important was it to be in school.” A desktop computer was the first technology and Microsoft Word was the first program I ever used.

As a result, Microsoft word changed my traditional pen and paper that I, as a student, loved. Personally, pen and paper was more enjoyable because I felt more in touch with my writing. Then again, technology has actually saved me a bunch of money from buying those materials. Years have passed and now I believe technology and their social media websites like Myspace, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have negatively affected my literacy skills although they have made my jobs easier.

In my early education, technology and literacy mixed and took action only in my English class because my teacher wanted us to get use to typing essays for class, but first of course, we needed to do a rough draft in paper. At that age, it was an awesome experience because you actually found out how to write stories and print them out for the others read, but the most important thing was that my grammar and spelling at that time was perfect. This later started to change as the social media website Myspace was brought to my attention. At only 8 years of age, Myspace was introduced to me by a friend in school who said only the cool kids were the ones who had Myspace. Afterwards, like any other little kid trying to fit in, led me to create a Myspace.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take even a month before I was already introduced to all the slang words and cool picture layouts. Phrasing nor, did I only change my Myspace layout constantly; I also changed the proper form of writing. The reason why I changed my writing to slang writing was because I wanted to sound cool and unique in my profile. So what is Slang writing? For example, writing “Was up Bro” replaced the words “How is it going” or “That’s poppin” meant “That’s great”. Not only were my words changing day by day, but my reading habits and my ignorance in correct spelling also increased. When I use to reply to someone, I never started off a sentence by capitalizing the first letter, and I also got in a habit of putting in too many exclamation points.

Although the Myspace era is over now, similar social media websites like Facebook were trending and with them Technological advancements like cellphones became a must have to me and is now what today, has shaped my literacy. Cellphones were the new way of communicating and surfing the internet faster than any other device. My first cellphone was a Boost Mobile phone and it helped me out but then negatively affected my literacy practices. From the use of cellphones, I got to have unlimited resources than ever imagined. First, with cellphones I stopped taking notes in classes because I would record my lectures, which although made it easier for me; also really made me in irresponsible student because I would rely mostly on hearing the recorded lecture rather than paying attention in class. Secondly, with the use of phones there was also a huge loss of sleep in my life. Cellphones were a whole bunch of distractions to my sleep, due to the fact that it had so much free addicting games in it. For example, Pac Man and Super Mario held me up sometimes until two in the morning just trying to pass all the levels and sometimes distracted me from doing homework.

One year later, social media website Facebook was a new media trend. Introduced to me by my sister and friends, Facebook generated a variety of different elements to help it become not only a teen website but as well different age group website. Facebook popularity became enormous to a point which it brought fourth News channels to have a fan page. To me, Facebook became my preferred way of messaging friends from miles away, reading the news, and flirting. Facebook actually took an important role in my early teenage years because it had cool Emoji that made it easier to express yourself when talking to girls. Emoji for me were like the key in shortening words or sentences you needed to say. For example, there was this one girl I had dated thanks to the many heart emoji I had sent her.

Hearts and kissing emoji from my experience was the best way to talk to a girl. Sure at first it was kind of creepy knowing the fact that I was passing by a false name, but It just with another way of communicating with a public you as well didn’t know.

Another way in which Facebook has mixed with my literacy is through their useful news page which provides me with detailed information of news within my city. The FOX 26 page is a great example. On a daily basis, I read their updates so I can get informed of any news in the Houston area. Unfortunately, this way of reading has also affected me because I have gotten use to only read the subtitle of the news because it’s a quick way of leaning what went on although it’s not the complete information. Yes, I have only gotten ignorant in reading thanks to technology.

In conclusion, today I don't feel like technology has helped my literacy skills in a personal level. Perfect examples were my previous experiences. But most importantly by being allowed to use unacceptable language and pronunciation in public has lead me today to still not properly master my grammar, pronunciation or helped me become a better writer. “Yes”, although today's technology has automatic spelling correctors it still isn't helping me out because they're the ones practically doing all the work.

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questions

1.In my Techno Literacy project I managed to exlpain, how technology has impacted my literacy practices and skills.

2.From the feedback of my first esssay I noticed in had to make changes.

3. Within my project the my strenghts is the detailed vision on how technology impacted my life, some weeknesess I believe I can still see not much effectiveness.

4. I believe the main struggle in my writing was my way of organizing ideas and not jumping from one to another. I belive that I could have wrotten more becuase this topic in opionion would have gone forever.

5. Having enough time given for my project, gave a good way to stucture everything in time .

6.With my narrative I hope to have passed with great grade.

7.I belive my audince could be anyone who was interested in knowing how, Technology has impacted my life.

8. After having to revise and enhance my rough draft I now understand that at first my essay wasnt normal at all. My Esssay at first struggled to go full into one detail. In my first draft, thanks with the help of my proffessor and friends I understood that my ideas were every where.

My Techno Literacy experiences were all touched and not described in further detail.Therfeor, I started to go into furrther by explaining more on how one topic changed my views in literacy, both in a positive and negative way.

9.With the help of my Prezi I saw my essay go into further detail. Posting picture in my belief made it easier for a writer to understand my experiences with technology and also can engage readers better.

10. The challenges I had with my Prezi,were just to find the corect wallpaer for the topic. For example, sometimes it was finind the ncorrect picture because if the picture was to bright or HD, you would need to use darker and bolder text.