Media each have a grammar—a set of rules and conventions that dictates how they operate. When you grow up with a medium, you often take for granted some of this grammar: you learned pretty early that the television screen going wavy is a sign of a flashback or dream sequence. But it is also useful to pay attention to other forms of television and Internet grammar, such as how news media arrange their visual clips to maximize emotional impact. Understanding media conventions helps you recognize the limitations of media, so that you can better separate, for example, TV sitcom logic from real-life situations. You can also better appreciate the genres you love, distinguish the good from poor versions of these forms, and recognize the value of parodies of these conventions (such as the Daily Show on Comedy Central). With digital media technology, there are many more grammars that you have to learn: Twitter and Facebook, for example, each has its own vernacular, privacy settings, and ways of sharing information. With emerging media, you need to understand where your messages are going and to whom, as well as what it may mean in different online contexts to, for example, subscribe, like, or re-tweet.