How Technology has Changed Us

How Technology has Changed Us

In his recent work Clive Thompson suggests that American’s today tend to believe that technology is to blame for student’s “bad” writing. The “bleak, bald, sad shorthand” as Professor John Sutherland puts it. But that is not what Thompson claims as his belief; Thompson feels that student writing today has taken a huge turn for the better. Since students are writing so much more these days, and a lot of the writing is done outside of the class room, in social settings, he agrees with Andrea Lunsford when she states, that it is “pushing our literacy in a bold new direction. Lunsford also states that technology isn’t killing our ability to write but that it’s reviving it.” Before the internet, most Americans hardly ever wrote anything, that wasn’t required of them, now people are constantly writing for enjoyment as well as for school. People fear that student’s bad grammar when writing to friends will carry over to their academic writing, but as a study done by Lunsford on 14,672 Stanford students’ show, that writing has actually improved with the use of technology. Lunsford found that “students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos-assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get there point across.” (From Clive Thompson’s article on the New Literacy) Since students are constantly writing for an audience, they get a different sense of what good writing is. Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently regards technology as having played a great part in making writing better today. My views co inside with Thompsons, we might have to pay the price of some down fall in writing, but what of this new found love of writing, do we just want to throw it all away? I don’t think so; to have the love of writing is the beginning of creative writing. With technology there comes a price, and if the price is as little as a few grammatical errors, well than I say the price is well worth it. I.M, facebooking, texting, ect. Have all opened a door to further interpersonal communication, and with interpersonal communication comes happier people, and happier people make for a better world. So as you can see I feel strongly that the good things about technology out way the bad. Technology has added greatly to the good of this world and without it, I don’t know where we would be, Stone Age? J So I say to all the people, who feel strongly that technology is the cause of bad writing, look at the facts and then think again. When I first read the article I felt that Professor John Sutherland was correct in thinking technology was causing students “bad” writing, but I changed my mind when I looked more closely at this issue. As I was looking further into this, I came across this article.”When asked to evaluate the progression of their own writing abilities over the past year, three-quarters of teens (77%) think that their writing skills have improved. One in five (22%) see little or no change, and just 2% feel that their writing skills have actually declined. This belief shows little demographic or socio-economic variation. Of these teens whose writing skills have changed for better or worse over the past year, more than half (53%) feel that the writing instruction they receive in school is a major factor driving that change. A somewhat smaller number (39%) cite the technology tools they have used for writing as a major factor, and just one in four teens cite their personal (non-school) writing as a major factor behind their writing improvement. These rates are consistent across all major demographic and socio-economic groups. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Teen/Parents Survey on Writing. Sept. – Nov. 2007) I believe when you mix good teaching with technology, you will see a great change in writing as we know it today.