Raising awareness of issues via outdated technologies is becoming increasingly difficult. Many people have stopped reading most of their email messages. According to a study conducted by Pew Internet, email open rates have dropped to 63% between the years of 2004 and 2008. This could be due to multiple reasons. One of those reasons could be that people are receiving too many emails. Many people have been receiving numerous spam messages. Also, people have been receiving phishing emails (Taylor, 2010).
A Nielsen study found that Americans spend almost a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs. During the period between June 2009-July 2010, email use has dropped 28%. 46% of adult internet users are also social networking users (Taylor, 2010).
The pie chart below shows how much time is devoted to each section of the Internet. According to the chart, people spend the most time on social networks/blogs and doing activities that are not listed. 
Since much time is spent on social networks, teachers devote time to analyzing social network messages and their meaning. They should teach their students what makes them appealing and why people spend time on these sites.
References
Taylor, J. (2010). Celebrating national adult education and family literacy week.
Advocacy Clearinghouse and Tooklit Blog. National Coalition for Literacy.
Medialiteracycolloquium's Blog 