Locally, this story out of Dearborn:
On Friday, prosecutors charged two Dearborn High School sophomores who in a note on My Space threatened to shoot up the school. The teens, ages 15 and 16, told police the threat was a prank, and school officials said it appeared to be a hoax. But authorities took the case seriously, arresting the boys initially on suspicion of terrorism and holding them in the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility in Detroit.The language of the post is at once chilling and goofy: "I'm sure they'll show the footage on the news or something." The language of the "adult response" sounds stodgy, a list of cliche tips for parents ("oh, so I SHOULD talk to my kids about what they're doing?"). The language of the media reports reveals a lack of understanding of the technologies involved, especially of the differences, nuances, and overlaps between blogging and social networking programs. I kept thinking, especially with regard to the obvious tips for parents, of a term Mary Soliday uses in describing literacy crisis rhetoric: "always newness." No matter how old, tired, and familiar the rhetoric, always the implication of novelty.
In the more national (not to mention more sublime, more riduculous) arena, a story about the underage children of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, posting to my space about, GASP!, drinking. And the young son of P Diddy blogging about--and here comes another connection to the wonderful world of the literacy crisis--how he has no interest in, or use for, GASP!, reading.
5 comments:
how about literacy first, then electracy second? you can't fetishize "new" communication technology (that, i might add, services the rhet/comp careerist agenda) in good faith without admitting that the old communication technology, such as the book, offers a different, and to my mind, far superior physical/spiritual experience of intersubjectivity.
Who fetishized *any* communication technology? These were interesting stories, I thought. That's all. I didn't mean to imply I was cheerleading for one form of technology, or one form of communication. Just thought it was interesting. Talking about one particular literate activity as having a "far superior ... spiritual experience"--now THAT sounds like fetishizing.
Not sure what you mean by a "rhet/comp careerist agenda." There are people in the field who write about new technologies ... does that make them "careerist"? Careerist in the sense that they're doing something unethical? No idea what that means.
computers in writing strikes me as an opportunisitc dodge into theory and away from addressing the real issue of academic writing: basic proficiency.
i'm teaching freshman comp for the first time in five years and i can't believe some of the stuff i'm reading. i can't imagine having students write blogs or muck about with wikis. many of them need immediate remedial help with the absolute basics. the computer, i find, is a menace to literacy with these students.
just getting my feet wet.
I came across your blog doing a little research on what has been written up concerning the supposed threat against Dearborn High via Myspace.com. I am a friend of one of the culprit's family and have heard the whole story. I agree totally with you that people are trying to villainize what they do not understand. In truth, there was no threat made. Instead, there were a group of Dearborn High students who all had fictitious Myspace characters that would interact with each other in absurd, silly, and---if you a 15 year old---funny conversations. Most of the comments are absolutely innocent silliness of rating "cute" couples and whatever, then it moved on to "ripping" on each other from the (unfortunately all too) common effimenating brand of calling one another "homos" or "fags" until one profoundly silly lad jokingly blows up and promises to go postal. It was all a joke between young boys...who stupidly did their immature form of silliness in a public forum like Myspace. They never meant for anyone to take it serious, they didn't converse with anyone that wasn't "in on the joke". There was no formal threat sent to the school or any school official. If anything it is a really base form of theater. It is unbelievable that these kids face possible criminal charges and their parents were faced with a $100,000 bond to get their kids out of the slammer.
We jump so quickly upon things we don't understand. It is a shame that historically we never learn.
Dallam
Dallam:
I think many people, especially in the popular press, don't understand THE TECHNOLOGIES involved. And you're right that we should certainly try to parse out intentions, etc.
And yet I think we also need to be held accountable for what we say in public spaces. There are implications for our words--something these kids don't seem to have grasped. Doesn't the school have an obligation to protect students--not at any cost, of course--AND to teach accountability?
Thanks for commenting.
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