As people who are trying to study, there are too many subjects when students are in school to truly become proficient in one area. We seem to think we already know English, so we don't make an effort to learn anything else. We are ruined by society to reinforce what we think we already know about literacy. I think about literacy and writing and consider how lazy we have become when it comes to communicating with others. We often use slang or even emojis or emoticons in everyday communication through text messages, social media or even emails, we have a weak vocabulary and our means of communication are more informal and less thoughtful. I admit that I do this and don't try to read or write on more in-depth topics to try to improve my literacy. In response to Gerald Graff's article on “Hidden Intellectualism,” he talks about street smarts and the fact that people are often educated through what they learn in their environment. In many ways people are intelligent, but this knowledge rarely goes unrecognized in formal education. In this way, people are intellectual but are more capable of applying what they know to what they have learned about life or topics through various scenarios in their lives rather than through