Essay

Joan Conway

Writ 1122

Professor Leake

27 January 2013

           

            It is an endless debate that seems to come up everyday, especially being part of our generation: How detrimental is technology to the way that we read, write, and think? We hear about it at home from our parents, at school from our teachers, and even from random strangers on the news. It seems like we mostly hear the negative thoughts about what technology is doing to our world. I can think of countless times that I have been told how people these days are too wrapped up in technology and how people are forgetting how to read and write properly. While I can definitely see the negative impacts that technology is having on our world today, I think that there are also many positive effects of it that are often forgotten and hidden behind the negativity. Technology is here to stay, so I think instead of dwelling on the bad things about it we have to focus on the positive ones and utilize the technology that we do have in the best ways possible.    

            One of the most important factors in the debate about technology and literacy is defining what literacy actually means. Without knowing what literacy is, how can we determine what kind of an effect technology is having on it? The problem is that it is almost impossible to come up with one universal definition for it because of all of the cultural factors that play into an area’s literacy. QUOTE. The lack of one, universal definition makes it apparent that there is no clear-cut answer to the debate of how technology is affecting literacy. I think as a way to attempt to find answers in these arguments, it will be helpful to look at how technology is affecting our country specifically. These are the impacts that we see firsthand on a daily basis. A lot of the information about this subject that we know, we get from seeing the changes happen in our own lives. While it is difficult to come up with one right answer to the question, I can see validity in the arguments of both the negative side and the positive side. The side that seems to be more prevalent is the negative side of how technology is affecting the way we read, write, and think.

            Critics of the changes that technology is bringing have a lot to say about how it is changing the way that we read. Newspapers and actual books are becoming less important because both of these things can now be found online. While I still get the newspaper at my house, I know many people who do not subscribe anymore because they can get the same information online. Some people like having the actual paper and want to keep the status quo, but that number is clearly diminishing. Not only do critics comment on how the medium of what we are reading is changing significantly, but they also criticize how people are reading. QUOTE. The fact that a man in the literary business is having trouble keeping focus and reading a long article supports the idea that the impact of the Internet and online reading is affecting people of all ages and backgrounds. I have noticed this too not only in myself, but also those around me. There are so many things available for people to read that it is difficult to focus on one for a long time without getting distracted. Many of us have a world of information literally at our fingertips, making it nearly impossible not to get sidetracked sometimes. QUOTE? There is definitely truth to the fact that technology is changing our reading habits and while some of those changes are negative, there are also positive changes.

            Technology has made access to reading material so much easier than it was before. Now, a book can be purchased on a computer and even a phone, so getting books is extremely easy. Not only are books more readily available, but so are newspapers and many other forms of writing that people read. This opens up a whole new world to readers. The greater access to things to read and the ease of obtaining them seem to encourage more reading. While it may be true for some that they cannot focus or struggle reading long things, many people take advantage of the technology, using it to their advantage to read more. Even though the things that people are reading may not be that long, people are reading more. The medium may be different than it used to be, but I think that the action of reading is more important than what people are reading from. Some even argue that the excess of online reading and writing reminds people of the importance of actual print, QUOTE. This argument plays into the changes that come about in both reading and writing.

            Another aspect of the negative side of the argument about technology is that it is changing the way people write, in a bad way. This is something I constantly hear about, how people are losing the ability to write correctly because of the slang used on the Internet. QUOTE. The way people are writing is changing, there is no denying that. Blogs are a perfect example of this. People can write any way they want with no limitations and publish it to the Web for anyone to see. That is drastically different than the traditional writing that people of the older generation are used to and it is understandable why people are concerned about it. Although I can understand why people see these changes as negative, there are also many positive changes that technology brings about in writing.

            Every day it seems I hear about how technology is changing the way we write, but I rarely hear about how it is changing the amount we write, which is one of the positive impacts that comes from it. QUOTE. I could agree that people are writing more these days, because even if it is just an email or a post on Facebook, it is still writing and people are doing a lot of it. A lot of the criticisms about writing are about how the style of writing is changing and how that is not a good thing, but people rarely take into account the fact that most people know how to distinguish which way they should write, depending on the audience that they are writing for. QUOTE. I have definitely done this myself and have seen those around me do it as well. If people can determine the way they should write for specific audiences, I don’t see that much of a problem with the informal writing that takes place online. Technology is bringing about changes in reading and writing, but it is also even changing the way that we think.

            Critics of the changes brought from technology, argue that it is even changing the way we think in a negative way. In the same way that people are losing focus while writing, some argue that people are behaving the same way in how we think. I have heard many times about how our generation doesn’t care about anything and all we care about is ourselves.  People attribute those things to the increases in technology that there have been. I take offense to that belief because I, along with many people I know, am a part of this generation, and I don’t think that attitude is true for all of it. I think technology has brought good changes to the way that we think. It has expanded our perspective immensely. We are able to find out about things that happen across the globe immediately after they happen. We have a global perspective when thinking about issues, something that could not be possible without the technology that we have today. The way we think plays a huge part in how we read and write and all three have changed throughout time and will continue to change with each other as there are more changes in technology.

            Overall, I can see both the arguments for and against the changes that are coming from technology. Even though I sometimes agree with the critics and the negative impacts that are coming from all of these increases in technology, I think it is important not to dwell on them. Technology is not going to go away. It is here to stay and will continue to become more advanced, as scary as that may be. I find it meaningless to go on and on about how technology is making us worse because it is impossible to take back the changes that it has brought and will continue to bring. Instead of focusing on the negative, I think we should focus on the positive and use the technology that we have been blessed with to do things that we otherwise could not. We have to take advantage of the opportunities that it provides and use it in the most positive way possible. Negative impacts aside, technology is a great addition to our lives and we should view it more in that way.

            

Six

Writing this blog has been a pretty good experience so far, although I am still not completely comfortable doing it. Even though hardly anyone reads it, something about posting something on the Internet where anyone could see it still kind of scares me. In that way, many of my opinions on me personally blogging have remained the same. I think having a blog is a good thing for that reason though, to get over the fear of putting my opinions out there for people to see. Sometimes I have difficulty with the structure of writing on the blog, I feel like I am just rambling sometimes in the way I write on it. I guess I could use more of a specific structure if I wanted to, but I think just writing down thoughts is a breath of fresh air from all of the other writing that I have to do in other classes. At first I was concerned about how much we had to write in the posts and worried that I would not have enough to say, but I have found that that does not really have an effect on my posts at all. Once I start writing, I am usually able to write with ease and before I know it I am already over the necessary amount of words needed.  While I am sometimes stuck and do not have much to say, it is not hard most of the time. Overall, I have enjoyed this blogging experience most of all because of the material that we have been blogging about. I think the literacy debate and the question of what technology is doing to our world today are very interesting and important things to think about because they are very prevalent in our everyday lives. 

Five

Prior to the readings, I usually just thought of literacy as being able to read and write, at least well enough to get through doing everyday things with ease. I thought of it similarly to how Scribner explains it as functional literacy. The reasons she gave for why that does not really suffice as a definition make sense though, because the things that people need to know to get through each day vary a lot between cultures and society. It seems almost impossible to come up with a definition for literacy that can be universal for all societies and cultures because peoples’ lives are so different. I agree that there are many factors that play into defining literacy and that it is a huge task. I also agree that there are different forms of literacy and that accomplishing the task of becoming literate varies depending on where and how you live. I liked how Lunsford took a more positive approach to looking at how the increases in technology are changing the literacy in the world today. It was really interesting to see how students are actually writing more now than they were before, and it makes sense because even if it is not traditional writing, people have a lot more opportunities to write about whatever they want whenever they want. I also liked how she emphasized the fact that most of the time students know when to differentiate the type of writing depending on the subject, because I have noticed that a lot with people in our generation. Lunsford and Scribner were definitely not as negative as Hedges and Carr in their outlook on literacy, which was a nice change while reading. I think one of the most pressing concerns is that while most people know when to formally write and when to write in their own style, some people do not and need to learn how to distinguish the two. I like thinking about the positive changes that technology is bringing to literacy and how people write because it is a lot better to think about than the negative ones.

Four

In Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” he starts out from a personal perspective, explaining how the Internet has had an effect on his own mind. He has noticed that he cannot focus as well on long readings as he used to. He finds himself skimming over things if they appear too long and he finds himself not being able to pay attention to something if it is taking too long to read. He then explains how it is not only himself that is going through these changes. His peers, many of them also in the literary business, are also going through this problem. He discusses how there have also been studies, showing that this is a general trend throughout the world. People are getting more impatient when it comes to reading, tending to skim more than actually read. People go through sources much more quickly than they used to because they have the access to and also because that is increasingly how people’s minds are starting to work. Instead of going through sources in depth, they skim and attempt to get the main points in that way. I think Carr’s answer to the question is that Google is making us more stupid. He discusses the idea of artificial intelligence, which is kind of a scary term. I also found his point about losing silence interesting because it is true that we are losing that in our world today. People are constantly doing things and not taking time to just think and reflect on things in their own way. In Hedge’s article, he is extremely critical of the American public and their lack of literacy. He separates the American public into two groups, those who are traditionally literate and those who are not literate at all. He points out that even those who are technically literate, are not too well educated and cannot read all that well. He uses politics as the main example of illiteracy in the world today, which is a good example because it is so prevalent. It was really interesting seeing the statistics about the debates and the speaking level of the candidates and that was also kind of frightening because they are supposed to be some of the best speakers in the country. It is interesting how he pairs literacy with being realistic and illiteracy with the idea of fantasy and false hope. Carr and Hedges both clearly see the negative effects of the Internet and increases in technology and they both fear what will happen in the future if the country continues at this rate of Internet and technology use. 

I think that reading is looking at information and taking it in, forming your own thoughts and opinions in your head about what you are reading as you go.

I think writing is forming your own thoughts about whatever it is you are writing about based on the information you know or learn about and how you view and analyze that information in your own way.

Three

Harris sees academic writing as the chance to interact with other intellectual writers and to rewrite their work. He comments on how people get caught up in the legality of using other sources, which I think is true. Students often dwell on that part of using other literary works, and it is highly important, but it is not the only thing that needs to be focused on when using other sources. An interesting point was that intellectuals’ ideas and creativity are rooted in the people and things around them. That stood out because there is so much attainable information in the world right now, it is difficult to come up with original ideas sometimes. Harris looks at writing as a social activity, and how writing is about interacting with texts. He sees writing as a “move” and how writers move in response to others. Both Harris and Sullivan have a lot to say about the relationship between different writers and ideas. They both emphasize how writing is about using the information of others, but using it in a way that makes it your own writing. Blogging incorporates Harris’ idea of writing as a “move,” because bloggers are constantly moving in response to things that happen to them or things that they hear about or see happen. Harris and Sullivan both think highly of the importance of utilizing the information around and incorporating it into your writing in a way to get the most out of it, analyzing it and critiquing it, but not getting too one sided about it. Harris and Sullivan have many similar ideas on writing overall.