Technologies impact on Literacy

In an article from Wired.com, Clive Thompson explains how society is claiming that technology is destroying the literacy of kids today. However, Thompson argues that it is in fact, reviving it. Thompson writes how in research done by Andrea Lunsford, “she found that young people today write far more than any generation before them.” Thompson also states that “The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes as good writing.” He is saying that not only do kids write more frequently, but they also write more efficiently and of better quality. Thompson’s argument is against that of society. He agrees that technology is, over all, improving writing.

In my opinion, Thompson puts across a good point. There are so many social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace that allow people to communicate. These people communicate by writing, and not speaking. People who use these sites are actually improving their literacy, not harming it. If it weren’t for social networking sites, people would not write nearly as much as they do now. Some kids spend hours and hours each day on these sites. Their whole social life may be on the sites. And mainly all that is done on MySpace and facebook is writing. So when one is constantly communicating with others, writing becomes a main part of their life. Just as often as using networking sites, people communicate by texting. In order for the “texter” to get their point across to the reader, they must use the correct words and put “voice” into their writing. Some may argue that the use of shortened words that many people text with will cause one to become less literate. However, Thompson points out that “ When Lunsford examined the work of first-year students, she didn’t find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper.” This shows that texting does not affect ones literacy when writing. So, shortened words do not decrease writing skill because writing is still involved. Many students dread writing for English classes, but love writing to their friends in an email on facebook. This means that technology could also be helping people to appreciate their ability to write in a socialized way. So, when forced upon, writing may become sloppy and of poor quality, but the opposite may be true when done out of free will on an online site. My own view is that people communicate by email, text and online far more often than talking over the phone. Even while talking to someone in person, one may be texting other people. Technology is such a big part of life for most people, and writing is so involved with technology, that it is improbable for there NOT to be an improvement in literacy. Instead of causing a decline in the quality of writing nowadays, technology has not only made it more frequent and accessible, but it has also improved it.