Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015

How My Confidence Helped Me Define Social Literacy

I have learned more about social literacy through confidence. I used to
have a very small amount of confidence. I lacked confidence both in my
educational and social abilities. Then I met a few great teachers who helped
me get into college, do well in school, and gain confidence in my work. As my
confidence grew, my quality of work increased and I learned more about
myself and my thoughts and opinions. I used to think that social literacy was
just about communicating through writing; I never thought much about it
until now, and now I realize that in my previous views, I had forgotten about
the social part of social literacy. So now that Ive thought about the social
part, Ive concluded that social literacy is all about confidence.
People with a high amount of confidence tend to be very social people,
and by being social, they communicate their ideas. Social literacy is all about
communicating your ideas, and in order to communicate your ideas, you
need confidence. Back when I lacked confidence, I was not able to effectively
communicate my ideas. I would have an idea, and then I would try to explain
it to people, but they wouldnt understand what I was trying to say. I would
try many different explanations, but people still didnt understand me. Then I
got some opportunities to help people. I would help people at school with
their homework, and then I got to help people at my church. I started
volunteering for fundraisers. I did awareness walks and helped my church

Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015
earn some money, and I constantly help out my churchs children with
activities. Doing all of this volunteering and helping over the years has
helped me learn more about myself, and my confidence has grown through
helping people. Being selfless and kind helps your confidence and helps you
express your ideas. Social literacy is created through confidence, which is
created through kindness.
Social literacy relies on kindness; the kindness that is within everyone.
As Saunders says, as people become older, they become kinder. I believe
this is why it took me years to discover what I think is the true meaning of
social literacy. Not many people will achieve social literacy, by what I believe
to be its true definition, right away; for many people, it will take years, like it
did with me. People believe that they are always kind, when in reality, we are
all selfish sometimes. Foer and Wallace would agree with me, but for
different reasons. Foer says that we are selfish because of technology.
Wallace says that we are selfish because of nature. I agree with Wallaces
reasons for selfishness.
Wallace believes that we are all selfish by nature. We always want to
do things for ourselves. Some people help others to make themselves feel
better while helping others creates the kindness and confidence that defines
social literacy, we also help others to feel good about ourselves. When we
dont help others, we dont think of what theyre going through. We react to

Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015
situations based off of our own selfish wants and desires. Wallace gives an
example of wanting to go home after a long day. We get frustrated by traffic
and long lines at stores just because we want to go home. Foer, on the other
hand, believes that technology has made people selfish. He thinks that the
only reason that we are selfish is because we communicate through social
media, rather than verbally. He thinks that this causes people to be
emotionless and therefore have meaningless conversations. Yes, technology
contributes to our selfishness, but Wallace proves that its not the reason for
our selfishness. We are selfish by nature, not by technology.
People selfishly think that their selfishness will give them more
confidence. Selfish people think that they are better than everyone else,
which causes them to think that they have more confidence than everyone
else. In reality, they lack confidence because they lack kindness. Kindness is
essential for confidence, therefore selfish people lack kindness. Kindness is
essential for confidence, therefore selfish people lack the ability to
understand social literacy. Although we are all technically selfish, as we all
have moments where we subconsciously think Were better than that
person, we can control the amount of kindness that we give to others. We
can choose to help people, or not help them. We can make decisions that
impact our understanding of social literacy. I have made many decisions that
impacted my understanding of social literacy, such as volunteering,

Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015
participating in walks, and helping people out. All of these decisions have
made me a kinder person, therefore giving me more confidence.
I was a lot more selfish back before I started volunteering and helping
people out. This had nothing to do with technology. In fact, I use technology
a lot more now than I did back then. My selfishness had to do with the people
I was surrounded by. There are a lot of selfish people in my family, and since
I followed by their examples when I was younger, I was selfish when I was
younger. It was through society that I learned how selfish I was being. I would
see society giving disapproving looks to people doing selfish things, and I
would wonder why people were so angry at that person. Being used to selfish
behavior, I didnt know any better. But I learned from society that this selfish
behavior was not OK. While society is selfish, they are also angered by acts
of selfishness. I saw beyond the selfishness when I looked more at society. I
saw people volunteering, and I realized that they are good people, and thats
how I started volunteering. As I started to get more involved with society, I
got a better sense of kindness. I became a kinder person through society. I
learned that being kind is better than being selfish, as being selfish doesnt
help you. Being selfish gives you nothing, no benefits.
I didnt learn more about social literacy through people that I was close
with. I learned more about acts of kindness through people that I didnt know
that well. My eighth grade English teacher helped me learn the most about

Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015
kindness and confidence. She would give me compliments every day, and
whether her compliments were about my clothes or my writing, she helped
me learn how to be a nicer person. She would also give me a lot of
encouragement with my writing. This helped me gain confidence and
kindness. It helped me to learn to think of other people. I have always been a
kind person, but I never really thought of others when I was younger.
Thinking of others has made me a kinder and more empathetic person.
Whenever others are in a bad situation, I think of how horrible it must be for
them, and it inspires me to volunteer and go on awareness walks to raise
money to help them. Gaining more knowledge about the world has helped
me become a kinder person. If people learn more about the world and start
volunteering, they will be kinder people and therefore gain knowledge. They
will also gain confidence through their kindness.
I have gotten involved in a lot of groups and clubs, which have given
me a lot more opportunities to volunteer and increase my knowledge and
confidence. While I did a lot of activities when I was younger, none of them
involved volunteering. As I got older, I started to discover more of my
interests. I decided to join clubs at school based off of my interests, and I did
a lot of activities through those clubs that involved volunteering. Through
volunteering, I learned that if you help other people, then you become a
kinder person, feel better about yourself, and gain confidence. Volunteering

Kate Honeyman

Professor Collins
English 115
25 September 2015
and having experiences with different people through school and clubs has
helped me learn more about my view of social literacy.

Webs Cited

Jonathan Safran Foers Commencement Adress at Middlebury

College, Johnathan Safran Foer, YouTube, May 30, 2013

Advice to Graduates, George Saunders, Transcription of the 2013

Syracuse University convocation speech, n.d.

This is Water, David Foster Wallace, Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon
Commencement Address, May 21, 2005