How Facebook has Impacted on my Communication in the Digital Age
Assignment #1: Literacy Narrative
Topic and Purpose: In this paper you will tell a story describing a significant experience you have had with writing and/or with technology in the past. The purpose is to reflect upon your own history and to consider your immediate goals for growth as a writer or technology user.
As a student enrolled in a hybrid writing class, you’re likely someone who does a lot of reading and writing on digital devices, like a laptop, phone, or tablet. We often think of digital devices primarily as tools to help us complete a task. However, the tools we use can have an enormous impact on not only how we write, but the way that we think about our writing. Though it’s easy to take the tools we use for granted, it is worth becoming an astute observer on how the tools we use impact the way we write and what we choose to write about.
For this option, describe how a particular form of new media/technology has impacted the way that you communicate in a digital age, both formally and informally (optionally, as in the first option, you can discuss a person who influences how you communicate with this particular form of technology).
Audience: Write this paper in a way that would be interesting to your peers (college students around your age) and/or students a year or two younger than yourself. Do not feel that you have to provide advice—this is your story—but try to make your reflections lively, engaging, and meaningful.
Genre: You will write this piece as a linear, text-based personal narrative. The tone of this narrative is informal. You may use the word, “I” and speak directly to the audience (your instructor and classmates).
Length: Your final draft should be 1000-1200 words long.
Literacy Narrative
Reflective Cover Letter
Task:
Now that you have finished your Digital Literacy Narrative, reflect on the process you went through to produce it. You will want to consider the following:
- How did you decide how to respond to the assignment prompt?
- What steps did you take in approaching your response to the prompt?
- Why did you decide to take these particular steps?
- How did you organize your essay and why did you decide to organize it in that way?
- What do you want your reader to learn from reading your essay?
- As you look at your paper, what do you think are the best parts of it? Why do you like these parts?
- Which parts are you unsure or less happy about? Why are you less happy with these parts?
- What did you learn from the process that you could transfer to future assignments in this class or other classes?
You do not need to answer all of the questions—just the ones that are most interesting and relevant to you.
Format/Specifications:
Write this as a cover letter with several well developed paragraphs. I will read your cover letter before I read your essay, so consider what you think I should know about your essay before I read it.
The cover letter should be 250-300 words (longer is OK), double-spaced. It should also be spell-checked, proofread, and edited.
Professor
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Assignment 1
How Facebook has impacted on my communication in the digital age
As a student enrolled in a hybrid writing school, I am usually burdened with a lot of work regarding reading and writing assignments. To facilitate the tasks I often use digital devices like a laptop, tablet, and a phone because writing classes are very demanding and require a student to be well equipped with relevant research materials, knowledge and skills to perform well. While pursuing my writing classes Facebook has been my best form of media that I have used for communication purposes. Facebook has had an enormous impact on my communication in the digital age.
Through Facebook social media, I have interacted with hundreds of my friends without having to travel. That is because the media has created a virtual world where I can see the profile pictures of my colleagues. The media has also made it easier for me to trace my longtime friends through the search option. Using the Facebook search option I can type the name of my friend and scroll through to match the name with the profile picture. That has helped me to retain many friends because I don't need to have their telephone contacts to communicate.
The Facebook media has also changed my communication pattern with my pals. Initially, I had to use my voice via the phone to communicate but currently I only need to use the short messages to pass my message to my colleagues. Facebook messaging services is very cheap compared to the early telephone voice services. With Facebook media, I don't need to use the scratch cards to top up my sim card with credit. Instead, I only need to subscribe to data bundles that are cheaper.
The Facebook media also enable me to communicate with many friends at the same time. The media allows me to create different chats with various friends. That implies that I can continue chatting with another person while waiting for a reply from another friend. That has enabled me to use lesser time in communicating with many friends. Furthermore, the media has made it possible for me to make quick consultations on urgent matters with a lot of ease. Initially, I could spend a lot of time to call many people to have an issue resolved but that has been simplified. All I need is to use the news feed option on the Facebook media to post a burning question. The news feed section enables me to share the concerned problem with the general public instantly. On seeing the post, the general public makes recommendations based on their understanding. I, therefore, use a little time to go through the comments and select the points I feel are necessary and use them in fixing a burning issue.
Facebook media has also had a significant impact on communication regarding important events. The media automatically updates me on specific dates for birthdays of my colleagues. I, therefore, do not have to call my friends to confirm their birthday dates all I need is to keep checking on notifications from the event section. Furthermore, I do not have to purchase and sent a birthday card to a colleague because Facebook provides options for commenting on friends' Facebook walls to wish them well. The media also enable me to generate congratulatory cards and send them automatically without incurring any expenses. Apart from birthdays I can also use the Facebook media to create an event and invite people. For example if I am organizing for an interschool essay competition, all I need is to go to the event section create the event using attracting online posters and all my Facebook friends would be automatically informed. That saves time and cost that would have been used to design hard copy posters and post them on the noticeboards.
I can also hold meetings with colleagues online without having to meet them physically. All I need is to create a Facebook group involving the selected members, and they would be alerted automatically. For a private meeting, all I need is to set the group as a closed group. To share the details of the meeting, I only need to set the group as public and all my friends would get to know the details discussed by the group. The media, therefore, enables me to send memos and conduct the meetings the colleagues within a day unlike before where I could spend a whole week or even more notifying friends of meetings. Since the communication is instant, the response rate is very high hence making the media efficient for communication.
Facebook media has also changed the way I communicate with my loved ones. I ca...