Texting, Social Media and Literacy: Writing in BS Classroom

Writing is a very difficult and complex process. It requires some important skills in order to make it clear and acceptable. It has never been an easy task to achieve especially for second language learners. As a productive skill, it is a crucial skill to master in order to be successful in one’s academic pursuits. Due to its importance, it is an important skill cultivated in an English language classroom at BS level. Within the globalization, new trends of using social media or social networking sites have been recently highlighted. Social media influence peoples’ lives in many aspects including education and English language learning. The Pakistani society is not an exception since Face book among other social media is more and more used, especially in the daily interactions of students among them the BS level students of The IUB. Social media were blamed firstly concerning this phenomenon and hypotheses were made about how modern technologies can affect directly or indirectly the process of writing academically among students. The aim of this study is to make a clear difference between texting and formal writing. Also, make students aware about the importance of writing whether in their personal or educational life. The present study is set out to determine the students’ attitudes towards formal essays mostly in exam papers as well as the functions of social media and how they can affect their formal writing. The current study also aims at studying the phenomenon of texting and its negative impact on students’ academic writing. The researcher thinks that the reasons that lead students to use the form of texting in writing are the lack of concentration, forgetting the form of some words and unconsciousness. The results obtained were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, and revealed that most students view that texting impact their writing according to some major reasons which are gaining time, forgetting the form of the words, using it unconsciously and simplicity.