'OMG!' Electronic Communication Isn't 'Writing,' Teens Say

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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 4/30/2008 2:00:00 PM

Although today’s teens are constantly text messaging, IMing, and emailing, don’t accuse them of writing. According to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing, teens believe that writing only takes place in school and on paper—not on cell phones, Web sites, or blogs. The study's phone survey of 700 youths, ages 12 to 17, and their parents found that young people engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, but 60 percent of teens don't think of these electronic texts as "writing."

Further, 57 percent of teens told the survey that they revise and edit more when their writing involves a computer. Sixty-three percent said that using computers to write makes no difference in the quality of the writing they produce. Seventy-three percent said that their personal electronic communications have no impact on the writing they do for school. And 64 percent of teens surveyed acknowledged that they incorporate, often accidentally, at least some informal writing styles used in personal electronic communication into their school work.

As for those emoticons [keyboard characters that mimic facial expressions :-) ] that are so popular, 25 percent of teens surveyed said they use them in their school writing; 50 percent said they've used informal punctuation and grammar; and 38 percent said that they have used text shortcuts such as LOL for "laugh out loud."

In short, teens like the utilitarian route, says the report "Writing, Technology and Teens."

"All of this matters more than ever," the researchers say, "because teenagers and their parents uniformly believe that good writing is a bedrock for future success. Eight in ten parents believe that good writing skills are more important now than they were 20 years ago, and 86 percent of teens believe that good writing ability is an important component of guaranteeing success later in life."

With this belief—and here's a message for educators—82 percent of teens say they think their writing would improve if teachers devoted more class time to this area of learning. African Americans and teens from lower-income households are especially strong in this belief.

“There is a raging national debate about the state of writing and how high-tech communication by teens might be affecting their ability to think and write,” says Amanda Lenhart, the study's coauthor and a senior research specialist at Pew, the Washington, DC-based research organization (the National Commission on Writing is part of the College Board).

“There is clearly a big gap in the minds of teenagers between the ‘real’ writing they do for school and the texts they compose for their friends," Lenhart says. "Yet, it is also clear that writing holds a central place in the lives of teens and in their vision about the skills they need for the future.”