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I have always been a social person for as long as I can remember. I have always loved communicating with others and sharing my ideas, opinions and thoughts. In school, I was always described as a 'chatterbox' and told that I 'would do better if I didn't spend all my time talking'. I remember always getting by well academically and I never remember struggling with the traditional types of literacies. However, I always preferred to speak verbally to others. Reading and writing never interested me more than using as a necessity to achieve what I needed to achieve. Throughout my life, I have loved to share interactions and knowledge with others through verbal conversations and physical representations of my ideas and thoughts. The new digital age of literacies appeals to me more than the traditional types of literacies that I remember so well from my childhood. I love that I can send voice messages to my friends on whatsapp and that I can video call my family when they are thousands of miles away. Social literacies are a crucial part of my everyday life and a huge part of my wellbeing and sense of belonging.

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Event and Social Practices - research a destination online 

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Event and Social Practices - research a destination online 

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Event and Social Practices - budgeting for the holiday and exchange rates for currency 

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Event and Social Practices - budgeting for the holiday and exchange rates for currency 

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Event and Social Practices- WhatsApp group for planning the trip 

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Event and Social Practices- WhatsApp group for planning the trip 

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Literacy Activities
Reading the information
Discussing with others about the destination
Typing written words
Filtering results of the search
Submitting a holiday request form with employer
Numeracy Activities
Looking at prices of holidays
Looking at different dates to travel (and cost implications)
Flight times/time differences around the world
Digital Activities
Navigating the website
Typing in information (destinations etc)

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Literacy Activities
Interacting with others a Bureaux De Change
Reading information
Writing down information
Discussion with others who are travelling about how much money they are taking
Reading payslip to know how much money I have to book the holiday
Numeracy Activities
Working out exchange rate
Budgeting how much GBP would be in specific currency
Understanding better exchange rates when more GBP are being changed
Digital Activities
Researching exchange rates
Researching currency for specific country
Researching best exchange rate provider
Looking at online banking app

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Literacy Activities
Typing written text via touchscreen
Reading messages from others
Sending voice notes
Sending photos/links to different websites
The use of emojis and GIFs
Numeracy Activities
Working out dates that are best for everyone to travel
Working out how much each person going on the trip will need to contribute
Digital Activities
Using a mobile app
Following/clicking on hyperlinked text sent by others

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Bright, colourful and inviting when the user clicks onto the website. Instantly there is a search bar with multiple search criteria for users to search for their chosen holiday.

There is a bar of information using symbols and written words that include the websites' trust pilot score', 'ATOL Protection', 'Award Winning Holidays' and 'Deposits from £30'. This bar is directly below the holiday search bar tool. Much of our everyday experiences of meaning are essentially multimodal (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011), therefore using an information bar that incorporates visual literacies and written text can support users to be able to relate and see familiarity in the website as they would other forms of digital literacies in their day-to-day life.

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Currency exchange - as seen at a Bureaux De Change for example is a digital spreadsheet that is ever-changing. The fluctuations within the value of currency and exchange rates is based upon the complex systems within the stock markets. These systems cannot be changed by one individual person and are in fact, based upon a vast array of variables way beyond our social constructs.

Due to the complexity of understand the stock market and changes in value of currency and finances, Bureaux De Change give clarity for consumers via the large boards that state what one currency will exchange to in another currency. This allows the information to be digested and better understood by the general public.

The formality of this financial literacy may make it, usually, less accessible to members of society who do not take an active interest or have an established understanding of stock markets and exchange rates. Perhaps appearing daunting or inaccessible to those who do not possess the skills require to dissect the complex natures of the financial world.

Diagrams of what could be explained using traditional literacies such as written word can expand users' representational repertoire. For example, if the words don't make sense, the diagram might, and then the words start to make sense too. The words begin to make more sense because the picture conveys meaning that the words could not (Kalantzis and Cope, 2009). Therefore, using a diagram to give visual representation of what, for some may be a difficult concept to understand (the differing value of various currencies) can allow this type of literacy to be more accessible to a wider audience in society. Giving diagrams can support the understanding of complex, formal concepts and help to convey meaning.

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The discussions within these chats are informal in nature. The 'chats' are made up of condensed sentences, single words, improper use of grammar and punctuation and the use of multimedia literacies such as GIFs and emojis. Visual literacy involves the ability to understand, produce, and use culturally significant images, objects, and visible actions (Felton, 2008)

The use of GIFs and emojis portray meaning in a way that is different to the traditional types of literacies such as writing written text. However, these different types of literacies can still portray the same meaning as the written text would have. These types of visual/media literacies appear more informal as they are usually used with implied humour or 'friendly' interactions between individuals.

'Synaesthesia is the process of mode shifting, re-representing something in one mode into another. You can describe a scene in words. You can picture it in an image. Moving between modes, you can say more, say it differently, and often saying it more effectively' (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011). Therefore, as discussed above, the use of GIFs and emojis can allow a different dynamic of interaction between individuals and give a different sense of meaning whilst still delivering a message for a purpose.

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In this part of an online website to convert GBP into another currency the 'seller' communicates with the 'buyer' that converting more money gets a better exchange rate - giving the customer more foreign currency for their money. Newell (2021) suggests that offering discounts or a deal to a consumer can create trust between provider and consumer, reduces the possibility of a customer shopping around for other deals, creates a sense of urgency to purchase a product and in one study conducted by Claremont Graduate University actually increased oxytocin (a happy hormone) levels in customers. This type of information sharing from the seller to the customer offers them a deal which will encourage the customer to spend more money. This not only creates 'buy-in' from the customer, but could also be seen as beneficial for both the consumer and provider. The customer gets more currency for their money and the provider gets more income from a sale by offering a better exchange rate. This also opens up discussions about leverage within the stock market that allow for sellers to purchase large quantities of currency for a discounted rate so that there is a mark-up value when the seller sells the currency onto another consumer.

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Everything’s better on the beach... and it’s ready when you are

Now, more than ever, you deserve a holiday. And with that, you deserve a holiday company you can trust. Our Protection Promise means your wellbeing is our priority and your money is secure, so you can book with confidence knowing you’re in good hands.

In the extract above, taken from the website, the 'seller' is using the recent coronavirus pandemic issues to create buy-in and portray themselves as a trusted provided that can ensure holiday-makers wellbeing etc. They are also cleverly reassuring the consumer that 'now' should be the time that they (the consumer) should take a holiday.

This constructivist approach is negotiated interplay between the seller of the holiday and the reader purchasing the holiday. The seller (in this case 'On the Beach.com) are wanting to gain that 'buy in' from the consumer and purchase a holiday through their business (Chandler, 1995)

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There are multiple links to different types of holidays, to different destinations, on different dates, from different airports, for different duration of stays, different packages (self-catering, all inclusive etc) and at different costs. Users of the site have to navigate multiple hyperlinks and search filters to refine their search. There is a dedicated section for 'cheap holidays'.

Navigating multiple links on a website requires metacognition - defined as cognition about cognition (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011) A skill in which uses logic of critical discernment in a media environment that is infinite in its extend and thus demands that we make many and frequent navigational choices (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011). For example, clicking on link to go to another link on a website requires the user to plan where they are going and recap on where they have been. The user requires a mental map of the social and informational networks they have moved through in order to gain a clearer view of the patterns of meaning (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011). The digital media require this kind of conceptualising sensibility in order to work.

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Hyperlink text allows a consumer to copy a text from an online website and paste it into another document - i.e. a text message. The reader of the hyperlinked text is then able to click on the text and it will take them to the exact website the sender wants to share with them.
Hyperlink text is a digital communication environment that creates unheralded opportunities for non-linear readings and user-designated navigation paths' (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011). This allows users to switch between a multitude of information with ease and allows the sharing of information between themselves and others to be far more simplified that scrolling through masses of information. For example, sending a hyperlink to a potential holiday destination to a friend would avoid them having to access the same website and search through the masses of potential holiday destinations to find the one their friend was also looking at. Hyperlink text essentially makes the process faster (Kalantzis and Cope, 2011).

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The interactions between friends is often described as an 'informal' type of literacy as they do not follow the 'formal' structures that may be used for an exchange between a supervisor and supervisee for example. This type of interaction could be classed as a single strand chain - where information is passed from person A to person B etc (Harappa, 2020). The information is shared in this group chat from one person with the others and meaning-making is demonstrated in a humorous way with the use of emojis that could be interpreted as 'crying with laughter'.  The interpretation of the language (both visual - emojis and written) may vary from how it was implied by the sender to how it is interpreted by the reader. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) describe literacy as a social process of creating and making meaning from multimodal signs and that interpretation can vary depending on our learnt interactional style and literacy skills (Taylor and Leung, 2009).

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This type of literacy is using a marketing technique that uses time sensitivity to encourage the customer to make a purchase. This type of marketing technique is described as the 'FOMO' (fear of missing out) strategy. It is meant to trigger people to take action quickly or otherwise they might miss the chance to capitalize on a deal that is happening right in front of them (Joran, 2021). An aspect of this technique is definitely evident in this image as there is a countdown timer at the top of the page that indicates how long the customer has to make the purchase at that price/exchange rate. The seller (in this case 'Post Office') also has to contend with the exchange rate of the currency potentially changing in the time that it takes for the customer to purchase the currency, so this will also have an influence on the time sensitivity used by the seller.

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Chandler, D. (1995) Texts and the Construction of Meaning. Available at: Texts and the Construction of Meaning (visual-memory.co.uk) (Accessed 10 February 2022)

Felton, P. (2008) Visual Literacies. Available at: 60-64 resource Felton.indd (weebly.com) (Accessed 13 February 2022)

Harappa (2020) What Is Formal And Informal Communication? Available at: Formal and Informal Communication: Types of Formal and Informal Communication | Harappa Education (Accessed 13 February 2022)

Joran (2021) The FOMO Marketing Strategy: Examples and Effective Uses of FOMO Marketing. Available at: The FOMO Marketing Strategy: Examples and Effective Uses (saleslovesmarketing.co) (Accessed 14 February 2022)

Kallatzis, M. and Cope, B. (2009)  Multiliteracies”: New Literacies, New Learning, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4:3, 164-195. Accessed online at: www.tandfonline.com.ezpr....1080/15544800903076044 (ubc.ca) (Accessed 13 February 2022)

Kallatzis, M. and Cope, B. (2011) New Media Literacies. Available at: Kalantzis and Cope on New Media Literacies - New Learning Online (Accessed 10 February 2022)

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.

Newell, E. (2021) Leveraging the Psychology of Discounts to Make More Money. Avaliable at: Leveraging the Psychology of Discounts to Make More Money | Volusion (Accessed 14 February 2022)

Taylor, Sheryl V. and Leung, Cynthia B. (2009) Multimodal Literacy and Social Interaction: Young Children’s Literacy Learning. Early childhood education journal, 2019-09-11, Vol.48 (1), p.1-10; Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands