writing, technology and teens

JG writes:
I'm reading a fascinating report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project & the National Commission on Writing: 'Writing, Technology and Teens'. Its two sentence summary is: 'Teens write a lot, but they do not think of their emails, instant and text messaging as writing. This disconnect matters because teens believe good writing is an essential skill for success and that more writing instruction at school would help them.'

Small wonder really that US teenagers are thinking in this way, given the narrow view of new literacies so prevalent in much mass media. Although having written that sentence I wonder if I'm being fair? It's now 5 years since the story reproduced in so many places about the Scottish girl handing in an essay written entirely in text messaging abbreviations (which I think I remember was exposed as a myth). So perhaps it's not that simple...the report should be interesting, I'll read on.

Thanks to Guy Merchant's blog for alerting me to the report. It's good to see that the Pew Project is continuing to produce such fascinating stuff.