Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics

James Paul Gee's article, "Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics" talks about the tests and gates primary discourse communities have towards secondary discourse communities.  These tests often see if a person is native or non-native to their community.  This can be tested by showing that you are in the know about what's going on.  If you're not a part of the primary discourse community, and you fail to pass the test then that community keeps it's gates up and does not have to share anything with you.  But, primary discourse communities are often affected by secondary ones.   An example I can think of easily is my sorority house being the primary source and Facebook being the secondary.  We choose what we put on there, but the linguistics in which the way people communicate on Facebook, rubs off on us.  However, we have the power to not have to have a Facebook, or post on peoples' walls or even look at their pictures.  But since Facebook is such a popular secondary discourse community, we all feel the need to participate and it changes the way we talk to each other, and also what we talk about.