How Does Social Media Impact Children’s Literacy Skills?

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Introduction
Have you ever wondered how social media can impact child development, specially linking to literacy skills of children? Most would assume that social media does not have any benefits on toddlers, tweens and teens literacy skills. However social media plays a huge role in the development of children’s literacy skills. “The National Literacy Trust found that social networking sites and blogs help students to develop more positive attitudes toward writing and to become more confident in their writing abilities” (Canadian Pediatric Society). You might be asking yourself what exactly is social media and how does it impact children’s literacy skills. Well social media is “any website that allows social interaction is considered a social media site. This includes social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, gaming sites and virtual worlds such as The Sims, video sites such as YouTube, and blogs” (Clarke-Pearson). While the opposing side thinks social media has a negative impact on children’s literacy skills, because it declines writing skills “due to excessive usage of online chatting and shortcuts” (Alice Martin). I believe social media has a positive impact on children of all age’s literacy skills because although children may not be reading books, social media is getting their attention and it has a lot of educational as well as helpful information that can benefit them which means it is influencing education and it is very foundation. All children can benefit from social media in different ways. Social media such as Play School and Sesame Street which are both educational learning programs help with learning their alphabets are beneficial to toddlers’ literacy skills. Social media also benefits adole...

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