The New Literacy

In Clive Thompson's "The New Literacy" he addresses, and questions the issue of our youths literacy declining due to these new technologies. Over the years the dependency we have on technology has increased dramatically. We now do almost every school assignment on the computer, and we rarely leave the house without and iPod in our ears and a cell phone in our hands. But is this increase in technology actually a bad thing? We now have the ability to keep in close contact with friends near and far away, with the click of the mouse or a touch of a button on your phone. These somewhat insignificant little half written sentences has launched us into what Lundsford, a professor of writing at Stanford, has called a "literacy revolution". Andrea Lundsford put to the test what some, more traditional professors, have been criticizing about this increase in technology. Would these new ways of communicating affect a scholarly essay necessary to succeed in college? Would the bad habits of shorthand and slang replace the use of carefully crafted sentences that they, the professors well educated in English, used and admired? No. When truly tested, the results were polar opposites of what more traditional professors thought. Instead of seeing this elementary style of writing reflected in students work, they found that the quality produced was incredibly professional. Thompson then goes to the extent of saying that these days; students now have an observant eye of who they are writing for. Having the ability to shift from a formal research essay to a text message and back again requires one to pull a 360 in audience needing the capability of keeping the two instances completely separate in the form in which they are written. Thompson, though never saying directly, tends to hint at the shift of one's singular works, to the online world where everything is shared. No one puts something on the internet if they do not want what they have written to be read. This new way of writing has allowed the internet to almost become one huge brain, with shared ideas and collaborative thinking. The issue of which ideas are actually yours comes into play with this endless access to people's opinions, which is only accentuated by the need for every detail and source to be accounted for in these ever important academic papers on which our scholarly career depends on. On the subject of technology and the affect it has on quality writing, I do agree that it does hinder one from being able to reach your greatest internal literary potential. By being able to use slang, shorthand, spell check, and synonym finder at the simple right click of the mouse, you do not even need to stretch your mind to find the right word. Though that may be true, I do believe that those technologies are what has led us to come on the verge of a literary revolution. The synonym you may not have known prior to your right click now is in your brain for further use. Thompson does make an incredibly impactful point of audience though. I have noticed in my own personal life that the shift from professional for school, and relaxed when just talking to friends is one that I make almost constantly when doing school work. It is almost as if it is necessary to have two different voices within your head, one for all of the smart, school assignments, and one for everyday talking and writing with friends. The ending statement of "knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might be the most crucial factor of all" that Thompson says is what I believe to be an accurate statement of what writing has come about today, who really cares if you have all the technical stuff, if no one wants to read your writing?