On the Cusp of Cyberspace: Adolescents’ Online Text Use in Conversation

The sheer number of choices adolescents have available to them for their reading and writing practices boggles the mind: magazines, comic books, graphic novels, young adult (YA) literature, classic literature, texting, instant messaging, blogs, chat rooms, multiplayer games, wikis, fan fiction, e-zines, MySpace, Facebook, and so on. The changing literacy practices and cultural norms associated with information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been explored in a number of publications about new literacies and media (e.g., Alvermann, 2005; Ito et al., 2008; Knobel & Lankshear, 2007).