Tag Archives: mark twain

Is social media really bad for literacy?

8th July 2013

Interesting research from Brandwatch came out on the 4th July. This named Twitter as ‘the most ‘illiterate social network’ .

The above quote came from PC Mag’s coverage of the research –http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421380,00.asp, whilst on the Brandwatch website an infographic highlights the ‘Social Spelling Hall of Shame’ – http://www.brandwatch.com/2013/05/research-shows-twitter-is-driving-english-language-evolution/

I have two observations with regards to this research.

Firstly, the headline is misleading. Look at the data, and if there is a problem it’s not a very big one. On Twitter only .56%, or one in 179 words are mis-spelt.

Secondly, it strongly implies there is a negative connection between literacy and social media

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