reading response 1

Thompson’s article shows us the two sides of “dehydrated language”. On one side, University College of London English professor states that texting, Facebook, e-mailing, PowerPoint, etc. is making young people illiterate, with no information to back up his statement. On the opposing side, a professor at Stanford University has done a writing study with an enormous amount of sample evidence (14,672 writing samples) stating that technology is only reviving our ability to carefully craft essays. There was not a large amount of students that did out of the classroom writing, only 38%. Before technology, Americans generally never wrote anything that was not a homework assignment, but in an earlier paragraph Lunsford states “Young people today write far more than any generation before them.” Thompson makes the point that since social networking sites are so open to the public it is virtually none the less closer to Greek civilization. Today, students are more likely to write for a certain audience. If the students have an audience to write to, they may be more excited to write in class as opposed to only writing to the professor. “When Lunsford examined the work of first-year students, she didn’t find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper.” People tend to either agree or disagree with types of writing, instead of looking at the bigger picture; who the students would do better writing to/for.

One implication of Thompson’s treatment of the amount of writing that people do today compared to 50 years ago, is that majority of our daily lives almost always involves text of some sort.

My own view is that students have not become as illiterate with the technology as they have become lazy in doing the work. Though I concede that technology definitely makes looking for information easier and it is easier to be lazy instead of putting the work in, and that this is “our day and age”, I still maintain that a lot of students have become lazy when it comes to using other sources rather than technology. For example, right now I just used my phone that has Dictionary.com to look up “concede” instead of using a regular handheld dictionary because it is simply “easier.” Although some may object, why not do it because it is easier? Why make more work for yourself when most of these things are right at your fingertips? I reply that this generation is simply lazy in the fact that their iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, etc. whatever it may be probably “has an app for that”. Why go to the library and take the time to check out a book, when you just look on Amazon or Google and you can get it for free, and not even have to walk into the school library?! Because it is easier. Priorities are not in order. Or maybe that’s it, some peoples priorities are in the wrong order. The issue I address is important because this generation is becoming lazier and lazier, although their writing may or may not show it, some people like to do what is easier, instead of taking time to do something. I am guilty of it, as I am sure many other people are. It is also important because this generation is not becoming illiterate, they are simply progressing in something other than writing; technology.