Summary:
In Ann Amiccui’s “Four Things Social Media Can Teach You about College Writing—and One Thing It Can’t,” she discusses how social media can actually aid when it comes to composing. It is no surprise that college students are always scrolling through social media throughout the day, even whenever they are completing assignments. I happen to fall guilty into that category, but Amiccui notes that this is not as bad as we make it out to be, as social media provides insightful concepts that correlate with our writing studies. “Interdiscursivity happens when you implicitly borrow or riff off another text or writer.” “Intertextuality happens when you explicitly borrow ideas or material from another text, which automatically links what you’re writing to something else.” These two definitions were interesting to read about, and we’ll further discuss them in the later sections. Whenever we are scrolling through social media, we always notice the hashtags and labels indicated in the post that usually are trying to convey a message to a specific audience. This same concept, again, is applicable in writing. Ann Amiucci’s article highlights the importance of social media within writing. Writing itself is general and can be seen everywhere, and despite not knowing, you can still pick up new ideas and information from the creators.
Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity:
The concept of intertextuality and interdiscursivity caught my attention through this article. If I am writing a paper, and I have seen a sample of it from a student in the previous years, I will want to format my paper in that manner. Again, if I see viral tweets from Twitter, now X, and notice how the individual formatted the tweets, along with the emojis or hashtags utilized, I will attempt to riff off the creator and do the same thing. Comically, I have even tried to implicitly do this when I am trying to be humorous in my writing. I have seen writers pull it off and usually enjoy reading humorous jokes in writing. Therefore, I figured I could perform them– side note, I cannot– but this is me using interdiscursivity. I enjoy the concept because it is so commonly used by students and even in professional writing. It is never bad to have things that you believe are fit for assisting you in composing your paper or even a social media tweet/post. Moreover, intertextuality is when explicitly burrowing an idea of a writer, meaning this could be a quote or a simple paraphrase. In social media context, this is when you utilize a meme someone has made. In my writings, I have been taught that quotes provide credibility, and I have not gone awry with this notion, as I still throw in quotes when needed to help me write. It is also good when you can borrow an idea to expand on it, whether you wish to elaborate on the quote, agree, or raise havoc and disagree. These are all beneficial writing tips that can help aid in you becoming a better writer. Intertextuality gives readers the idea that you can understand different perspectives, authors, or social media creators while providing different stances and supporting them.
Knowing Your Audience & Filtering:
When we are writing, we know it is vital to know the audience we are communicating with. If you are not careful here, this can seriously ruin what you believe to be a good paper. Many will think it appears awful just because it was lost in translation. Regarding my week seven blog post, you know how keen I am on knowing your audience when writing. It is imperative because what is the point of writing if you and your audience are not on the same page– it reminds me of a dog chasing its tails– although you wish to accomplish something, you can’t. The idea of knowing your audience can be easy, but if you are not careful, there goes all the hard work. The same goes for social media. Individuals should not post something if they are relating to the wrong audience because if it lands on the “wrong side” of the internet, again, there goes all your hard work. For example, if I am posting a tweet about the recent conflict between the Israel and Palestine war, but I am doing so in an inappropriate manner– then nobody will take my post seriously because the topic is very serious. I would not go to make awful jokes and throw random hashtags. I would write to upload factual information and hope people see accurate news. So, therefore, they would take me seriously. Also, this coincides with the concept of filtering: If I am reporting a sports game and people need me to be accurate, I cannot be biased because my childhood team lost. I have to be professional. I would not use run-on sentences or random acronyms as I do when I am tweeting or texting a friend. It is important to know how to filter your writing so readers understand your message.
Multitasking
To add, in the article, “Multitasking Damages Your Brain And Career, New Studies Suggest” by Forbes Travis Bradberry, he highlights how a recent study has shown that multitasking is damaging to the brain. It kills your brain– for the theatrics–. If you can notice my sarcasm there, I am sure these scientists are exaggerating this a bit. Bradberry states, “Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.” I do not think I was granted the skill of multitasking by the great man above, but I can say, as I am writing this, I am currently multitasking this blog post to help me conduct a research paper. I think it is going pretty well, but I do understand this message. Multitasking, at times, can and does throw me off when I am not doing it correctly.
Should You Do It?
I think something ironic about this study is that I feel that not many people choose to multitask consciously. Perhaps it just happens subconsciously, or it happens because individuals have a lot to balance and absolutely need to multitask. Now, of course, I am not suggesting that we should multitask, but if it aligns with the work, then I think it is fine. For example, relating to Amiccui’s social media writing tips, it would not be necessarily bad to be on social media to help assist you in writing. However, how long you are on social media impacts this. At times, it can probably be beneficial to multitask, but this might be rare. If I were doing accounting homework while writing this, then I am sure pure gibberish would appear on this blog post. So, I think multitasking can be useful if the two works align together, but if they do not– then they will probably kill your brain!
Study
*This blog, along with the blog from the previous week, was used for research purposes:
Leave a Reply