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Aime Cano-Ramirez
Professor Glenn Collins
English 115
11 December 2015
Kindness is Key
Social literacy can be defined as not only being able to read or write, but being
able to communicate and understand the world as an individual, citizen, and lifelong
learner. In todays society, for one to achieve social literacy to its fullest, one must be
open to kindness. Although many would argue that in the world today it is impossible to
be kind and form communications because we are too deep in technology, but if we do
not realize that we have a choice in this world we will no longer be able to be socially
literate. Having kindness to support the idea of social literacy we are able to
communicate with others, see the world through another's perspective, and essentially
create long lasting relationships.
My mother has always said that kindness is key to have a happy life and I believe
her. In Saunders speech regarding kindness he says, [...] and when were both so kind
and loving were nearly unbearable, drop me a line, let me know how your life has been.
I hope you will say: It has been so wonderful, and I understand what he means because
once we become open to kindness we will live a happy life. And to live a happy life one
needs to start to be more communicative with others about our feelings. From my own
experience I have seen that when I approach others and start a conversation they become
more open to discussions about life. Whenever someone has a problem with another
person and its been bothering both parties all day, talking about it with that person can

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help one cope with the issue. One starts to notice that to be happy one just needs to
express yourself, which is a type of social literacy.
Looking at the world from the perspective of others can also help boost ones
social literacy. We tend to be selfish in life, and because of this we tend to ignore others.
We really do not take time to get to know people because as a society we use our
electronics to disconnect from real life. Being aware of our surroundings can be difficult
at times because we tend to rely on the Internet to keep us in touch with the day-to-day
world. This method can be helpful at times, but sometimes we spend too much time with
this source and instead of doing humanity right it does the society wrong. In todays
world we rely on technology to socialize rather than truly experiencing human
interaction. I became a victim of this concept once. We begin to let our phones take
control and because of that humanity really isnt allowing themselves to live. I was more
aware of how many friends I had online, but never actually talked to them at school. In
real life I wouldnt dare go up to these people or even exchange a smile. I was so caught
up in the life of social networking that I wasnt actually experiencing the real world. And
although the reason behind technology would be to help our social literacy grow we
really arent using it the right way. According to Foer, Technology celebrates
connectedness, but encourages retreat, and he has a point. We get so sucked into our
phones that we forget the world around us. Failing to realize that there is more to life than
staring at a black screen. A experience that you would remember and cherish, instead of a
lit up screen displaying text.
Kindness in social literacy can help others build bonds among others. When we
express ourselves through speech we find that we are not alone. Being social, youll find

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that there are others just like you. I used to be a very shy individual and I never really
expressed myself to others. Exiling myself from communication with others made it
really hard for me to make friends. Since I never expressed my opinion on any topic or
interests I might have had, no one really spoke to me. Closing yourself off can lead to a
lack of social literacy. Most communication skills become weak and without it we are left
with no way of communicating our ideas. When I was in elementary I had a hard time
communicating with my peers due to a language barrier. I only spoke Spanish and
because of it I was alienated. No one spoke to me and I, instead of trying my best to put
myself out there and speak up, I hid in the shadows and allowed my timid-ness to get the
best of me. Because of this I had no friends and my days were spent alone. I failed to
have the communication skills that a five year old was expected to have. But for one
woman, language was not an issue. My kindergarten teacher used kindness as a way to
communicate with me. Although there was a language barrier she showed that she cared.
I never thought that through her my social literacy would grow, but it did. From then on I
had formed a bond with my teacher and communicating with others began to feel like a
simple everyday task. If it was not for my teacher taking the first step into approaching
something beyond her comfort level I wouldnt be able to speak English at all, let alone
write it or read it. We might not have spoken the same language, but because we at least
made the effort to communicate we both achieved social literacy.
People tend to believe that we cannot communicate or understand others of
different backgrounds because we will never be able to understand them, but why do
most believe this? If one does not make an effort to communicate with a person it is clear
that we will never understand life through their eyes, but if one does make the effort to

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get to know members of our community we might just surprise ourselves. No matter the
circumstances we can attempt to understand others, communication is key. With my
experience, I know that my teacher learned from me as I did from her. It was a form of
reciprocity that we had between us. I was able to take hold of the English language,
which helped me as a student and she was able to learn how to connect with those
learning the English language; we formed a student-teacher bond that helped me be less
timid in class and actually experience my childhood.
In conclusion, social literacy really is what one makes of it. To achieve it, one
must keep an open mind about everything. Kindness is in reality the key to forming
relationships and taking time to realize that we arent the only ones in the world. We tend
to forget the feelings of others, but through face-to-face interactions we begin to be less
selfish and more considerate. Once we gain knowledge of this we can finally say that we
are socially literate because we are able to express ourselves and take into account the
feelings of others. Technology can limit our ability to be aware of the members in society,
like David Wallace said, [...] close-mindedness amounts to an imprisonment so total that
the prisoner doesnt even know hes locked up. To avoid being locked up we must take
time to make a balance between the two, socializing online and having face to face
interactions with members of the community and outside of it too.

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Work Cited
Jonathan Safran Foer's Commencement Address At Middlebury College. YouTube.
YouTube, n.d. Web. 25 Sep. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=rggzz3fkina>
Saunders, George. Advice to Graduates. Syracuse University Convocation speech.
Syracuse
University, 2013.
Wallace, David Foster. This is Water. Kenyon Commencement Address. Kenyon
College, May. 2005.