Adolescents’ Dialogic Composing With Mobile Phones

Abstract

This 14-month study examined the phone-based composing practice of three adolescents. Given the centrality of mobile phones to youth culture, the researcher sought to create a description of the participants' composing practices with these devices. Focal participants were users of Twitter and Instagram, two social media platforms that are usually accessed by way of applications (mobile phone software). A Bakhtinian theoretical framework was used to locate composing as a social act involving relationships among multivocal texts and authors and audiences. Findings indicate that much of the participants' literacy engagement was spontaneous, in the moment, reactive, and emergent. Another finding was that audience feedback informed text production. Finally, the practice of digital curation (appropriating others' texts) was central to online phone-based composing practice.

#poetryisnotdead: understanding Instagram poetry within a transliteracies framework

“…Grace described how she used her mobile device for instantaneous composition in natural situations: “3am I sit in my bed, watch some Netflix show, and then … something that pops up in your mind and you just write it down … it's just something that comes to mind pretty randomly.” Some of her shorter poems were only a few lines long, for example, “Your smile made me believe in angels/And your love showed me that miracles do exist.”, indicative of this swift, natural composition. This reflects the work of Lutkewitte () and Warner (), whose research identified how young people write spontaneously and reactively for online publication using portable devices. In addition, the ability to compose on the device increases the ease with which multimodal poems are being created.…”

“…", indicative of this swift, natural composition. This reflects the work of Lutkewitte (2016) and Warner (2016), whose research identified how young people write spontaneously and reactively for online publication using portable devices. In addition, the ability to compose on the device increases the ease with which multimodal poems are being created.…”

“…With the widespread availability of online access and mobile application technologies has come an increased prevalence of Internet and social media use amongst youth, with 89% of American teens, and 91% of 18‐ to 29‐year‐olds in European Union nations, going online once or more each day (Eurostat, ; Pew Research Centre, ). This adoption of social media has resulted in new spaces for online engagement that have changed communication patterns (Bell, ; Clary et al, ; Warner, ). Young people are now composing short‐ and long‐form creative works in ‘spontaneous' and ‘reactive' ways (Warner, , p. 164) to share online with a wide audience using media such as blogs, forums and apps (Lutkewitte, ).…”

“…This adoption of social media has resulted in new spaces for online engagement that have changed communication patterns (Bell, ; Clary et al, ; Warner, ). Young people are now composing short‐ and long‐form creative works in ‘spontaneous' and ‘reactive' ways (Warner, , p. 164) to share online with a wide audience using media such as blogs, forums and apps (Lutkewitte, ). Instagram is one such platform where young people are composing multimodal poetry, by utilising images, text, filters and hashtags, to publish their work for, and gain feedback from, a global audience, consisting of the app's 700 million active monthly users (Constine, ).…”

Conceptualizing Scholarship on Adolescent Out‐of‐School Writing Toward More Equitable Teaching and Learning: A Literature Review

“…Although schools and classroom teachers have begun to recognize the importance of digital literacies as a critical part of participation in the 21st century, “those youth who are frequent users of digital media, composing in networked, digital contexts, are deskilled when they enter the typical schooled literacy context, often organized around print literacy skills (Hull & Nelson, 2005; Mahiri, 2006)” (Warner, , p. 164). Frequently the kinds of digital writing that youths do (e.g., composing and sharing memes) are viewed as off task or messing around rather than intentional.…”