Ann N. Amicucci article, Four Things Social Media Can Teach You About College Writing and One Thing It Can’t explain the interactions between social media and college writing. Amicucci elaborates on how students engaging on social media can foster certain skills that are transferable to academic writing, for instance awareness of audience, conciseness, and the ability to quickly understand content. She notes that through everyday social media use, this can help students to better connect with readers in academic settings. And how it can support certain aspects of writing. But she also points out that social media can not replace the need for sustained argumentation and the skills for college level writing. It requires more reflection and structured thinking than the normal fragmented discourse of social media.
Lottridge et al. article, The Effects of Chronic Multitasking on Analytical Writing, explains how frequent multitasking with digital technology can impair the ability of analytical writing. This study shows that chronic multitaskers can face difficulties in constructing complex problems and sustaining focus on single tasks. She argues that it interferes with a student’s ability to organize and analyze information for producing deep, insightful academic writing. Multitasking habits correlated with fragmentation thinking and shorter attention span which can lead to less cohesive writing. But together these articles provide a view of digital habits that are influenced on writing. Since Amicucci work focuses on specific social media skills it can affect some areas of academic writing positively. Lottridge et al. emphasis on the challenges that chronic multitasking poses to analytical depth.
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