In Class Essay #1

Luke Buehrer
In Class Essay #1
Question #1

In the past decade technology has evolved and progressed more than ever before. With this new technology there has been new ways of communicating and simply doing every day life. The internet, it has changed almost every way we go about life, but now the question arises, “Is this new technology killing literacy.”
In the article “The New Literacy” by Clive Thompson, this question is pondered. As John Sutherland says, “Power point has replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into “bleak, bald, sad shorthand.”” But Andrea Lunsford thinks the contrary. She simply suggests that instead of destroying literacy, technology is merely changing it. One interesting thing Lunsford found was that the new generating is writing far more than the previous, because of the internet. All the on-line chat rooms and twitter up dates has encouraged kids to write, not only write, but sharing there opinions and enjoying it as well. She argues that the “New literacy” has taken literacy back to the Greek tradition of argument. And that writers today have to write to an audience, which makes them change their tone and technique in order to get there point across.
I personally don’t see it as black and white as Lunsford or Sutherland makes it seem. I think that the progression of technology has not only been a good thing but an awful thing as well. The way it is good is that it persuades kids and adults to write a lot. And the more you write the better you become. All these chat rooms allow people to get there ideas and belief much further than previously possible. This can lead to a boost in confidence and personal identity. And as Lunsford sees it, it has brought us back to the time of argument and thought. With this access to an easy audience people get to write on there passions and beliefs sometimes writing pages and pages on their own will. A decade ago, the only time you ever wrote so much was when you had a school assignment. Full of anxiety, you would just make up something that almost always you had no passion in. Writing with the internet seems like a hobby now not a chore.
There are also many ways technology has damaged literacy. It is hard not to agree with Sutherland at times when you log on to some site and all you see is self centered comments that have no deep thought process or self identity weaved in the text. Some times all you see is comments on some celebrity and “how I want to have her hair” or some shallow thing like that. With chat rooms it is also possible to loss your identity, (contrary to what I said before) wanting to fit in with the masses, people will go along with what ever idea seem to be the most popular, stuffing there beliefs and opinions aside. It is no secret that web sites like Face Book and My Space have many followers that are addicted to them. Some teenagers’ even adults will stare at the monitor for hours on end. You think the more you practice the better you become, but really, is that much good for you? Some people see Face Book and My Space as their social life. Theoretically, if you never saw a person face to face in you life, but had five hundred friends online would you still count that as a social life? I think that this technology is great (admittedly, I never use is) but there has to be a limit to how much people use it.
Like I said, technology is good and bad, helping and hurting literacy. It is pushing literacy in new exciting paths, bringing us back to the age of argument and intellect. But at the same time it is killing self identity, encouraging bleak, superficial conversations. Taking people away from reality, and replacing it with Face Book. In the end it is a great tool with limitless possibilities, but moderation is the key.