Source outline

Intro (background)
• In the 21st century, literacy is more likely to mean writing blogs and instant messages as well as skimming video and audio, along with text, to gather information.(2)
• "Checking Facebook is routine," she said. "When they first get on the computer, they check their e-mail. They log on to instant messaging. They check their Facebook."


The importance of reading
• “ Reading for pleasure correlates with academic achievement.”(6)
• “Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading tests than infrequent readers.”(6)
• Good readers generally have more financially rewarding jobs (6)

The doors that the internet opens- the internet is great
• Today's definition of literacy is being broadened to include "literacy skills necessary for individuals, groups, and societies to access the best information in the shortest time to identify and solve the most important problems and then communicate this information"(9)
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21st reading patterns (leisure reading)
• “A British Survey finds that people actually believe that they are reading more. Despite competition from new media, and increasing pressure on people’s leisure time, relatively few people think they are reading less now than five years ago.”(5)
• Most (80%) claim to be reading about the same or more
• Even when reading does occur, it competes with other media. This multi-tasking suggests less focused engagement with a text.(6)
• Teens and young adults spend less time reading than people of other age groups.(6)

Reading patterns back in the day
• more time for leisure time reading(4)
• Parents spent more money on books(4)



Statistics of what people mostly spend their time doing online
Social networking-new media and time spent on that
• “The proliferation of electronic media that swallow students’ time could prevent some of them from developing valuable thinking skills fostered by fluent reading, according to some experts(2)”
• Percentage of time spent reading while using other media 35%
• when we are online we tend to spend more time on sites that are worthy of our attention. (17)


The consequences on homework, learning and reading
• “Some Researchers support the concern that online reading encourages quick, surface skimming over sustained concentration of learning.”(2)

The positive things or tools that you gain because of social networking and new media
• “Computers enable opportunities for adolescents to develop literacy skills through collaborative work and social interactions with each other.(7)”
• “Computer-based communication, such as email or chat room, places expectations on participants to respond in written formats to convey meaning accurately and effectively(7)”
• “Adolescents participation in these online activities develops communication skills and literacy skills that may not always be recognized in more formal educational settings.”

However, statistics of reading scores, because of networking and other new media tools
• Teenagers percentage of reading time has decreased the greatest and it is believed to be directly connected with new media and time spent online.(4)
•
Future of books
• They will more likely to be in a digital form rather than a printed form.(1)

Thesis: New media has given society new tools and innovations, but because of them, people have begun to change their reading patterns.