Is Tech-Savvy even a thing?

When mentioning 'social media' and 'the classroom' in one sentence - it is as if the whole world has stopped and together took a moment to *gasp*.

Vicki Davis mentions in her blog, Edutopia: A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom: 

 The myth about social media in the classroom is that if you use it, kids will be Tweeting, Facebooking and Snapchatting while you're trying to teach. We still have to focus on the task at hand. Don't mistake social media for socializing. They're different -- just as kids talking as they work in groups or talking while hanging out are different.

This is a concept soon to be understood (hopefully) by many teachers within the current technologically-driven era. In order to understand and engage the learners of this generation, it is essential for educators to not have the learners adapt to the school environment, but rather themselves adapt to the environment of what is becoming the norm - the technological environment. Because of this new and exciting environment, being 'tech-savvy' is not a thing (so 2002 *rolls eyes*).

For instance, by allowing tablets and smartphones in the classroom, Twitter can be used in Life Orientation to create a safe environment. A specific hashtag can be created together with pseudo accounts - of which only the teacher knows the identities - and questions can be asked through this medium which might not necessarily be comfortable to ask in front of a whole class.

English can become a fun environment where, also on Twitter, the word of the day should be used to comment on a trending topic.

The point is that social media has a place, and should have a place, within the modern classroom. In fact, writing a letter really is not that much of a thing compared to the formalities or informalities of an e-mail. How we communicate and portray ourselves online has become crucial in terms of job opportunities and references. Why are we so hesitant to teach these necessary life skills? It's an uncomfortable comfort-zone thing.