Recently it has been common to criticize technology and its negative effect on civilizations writing; however Clive Thompson slightly disagrees with this outlook. Thompson goes on discussing how “the brevity of texting and status updating teaches young people to deploy haiku-like concision” along with “TV-show recaps, 15,000 word video game walkthroughs has given new ways to write enormously long and complex pieces of prose.” Thompson’s article knocks on Professors John Sutherlands moans about “facebook encouraging narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand.’” Instead Thompson touches on the positives. A major advancement, found by Lunsford (Professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University) noted Thompson’s article, is that “students were remarkably adept at kairos, assessing their audience and adapting there tone and technique to best get their point across.”
Thompson apparently assumes that new age technology is actually not a deterrent of literacy but a stimulant of better writing, which I would have to agree with.
My view on this matter is actually similar to Thompson’, in that this technology keeps people actively writing and can improve certain aspects of peoples writing. One example would be the kairos Lunsford argues. Things like texting, facebooking, and discussion boards also help keep people actively writing were they wouldn’t be if those technologies weren’t available. Not only is it writing but its writing for purpose, for an audience. Not all of it is blabber; lot of it has meaning, or a reason behind why it’s being written. Also, as Thompson touches on, this new style of writing helps us write for a greater audience which helps bring out real voice in there writing.
Though, I concede that it doesn’t transform anyone to become an author or makes us expert writes, I still maintain the belief that it helps people bring out there voice and write about what matters to them. For example there are some discussion boards which I partake in that interest me, unlike certain writing assignments, I can write passionately about things here because I have stronger feelings about the,. The problem with writing assignments, I believe, is that if its not something the author is interested in then there is no possible way for them to get excited about there writing, this then would lead often times to dull and boring work. Although some might object by saying that we will begin to start using text speak in writings (or other similar myths,) I reply by saying that the studies in Stanford showed no such sign of it in first year college students, whose samples of writing they took. Things like spell check help eliminate any of these simple mistakes if they were even made in the first play. The issues is important because as years move forward so does the way we write and writing has left a huge imprint in history. However, we have had many different types of revolutions in different aspects in life, so what is so threatening about a breakthrough or revolution in new literacy?
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