Today the Pew Internet in American Life Project released a new report titled Writing, Technology, and Teens. The opening paragraph of the report states:

Teenagers’ lives are filled with writing. All teens write for school, and 93% of teens say they write for their own pleasure. Most notably, the vast majority of teens have eagerly embraced written communication with their peers as they share messages on their social network pages, in emails and instant messages online, and through fast-paced thumb choreography on their cell phones. Parents believe that their children write more as teens than they did at that age.

The core of the report focuses on what teens have to say about their own writing practices. The findings in the report span teen writing practices in and out of school and look at what mode teens use to write - long-hand or computer, the most common types of writing, and the impact of technology on teen writing behaviors.

(more…)

OK, this is going to start out as another post about something related to Twitter. Bear with me and it will go beyond Twitter. I promise.

Recently I tested out tweetclouds, a web-based tool that allows anyone who uses Twitter to get a “cloud” of the words and phrases they most often use when tweeting. I discovered that my tweets often include the phrase really interesting and the words gr8, yay (in a variety of forms), and think.

(more…)