Can Twitter Boost Literacy? : NPR - 2 views
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Ronnie Jackson on 09 Oct 14HEADLEE: Well, then let me ask you about length. I mean, we were joking earlier about using 140 characters or less, there are many people who argue that something like Facebook or Twitter actually decreases young people's attention span for reading. That, you know, when they're getting all their information in these little bips, blips, and clips that they're not ready to read that multipage investigative report or even a long novel like Moby Dick. JUNCO: Right, well, to that I say two things. One, I've conducted research to show that that isn't the case. That students actually - they get a lot from putting their words in 140 characters. I think it forces them to be concise and to be very thoughtful about what they write. But another part of that is that, for better or worse, this is our society now. We have been thinking in news bites for a very long time and 140 characters for a very long time. I mean, you know, being in the biz, right, you know that you have to grab people's attention very early on with short statements. And so I think part of that is learning how to read the vast amounts of information that's basically thrown at them everyday through traditional and newer media.