ABSTRACT
English teenagers are most illiterate in the developed world. Poor teen literacy levels linked to high screen time. Teachers have to work harder to find lessons that distract students from the digital mind swamp. Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are mediated by written texts. Literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and some literacies are more dominant, visible and influential than others. Literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices. Actor network theory eventually grew to become a family of theoretical resources which were inspired by—and derived from—post-structuralist ideas and ethnomethodology, and mostly developed through studies of science, technology, society. The chapter concludes with a rationale for a way to better understand digital literacies through ongoing research which engages with the users of digital media, and which studies digital literacies as they unfold at the level of practice.
