New Literacy reading responce

Clive Thompson recently published an interesting article regarding the impact on language today by current technology. Mr. Thompson’s opening statement makes it clear that he is aware of a commonly held opinion that today’s youth do not write well. To establish this, he first quotes Professor John Sutherland stating that recent applications like Facebook, and texting are contributing to a growing decay in the quality of written language. Thompson says that Sutherland has moaned about the "bleak, bald, sad shorthand" of today versus the carefully crafted essay. By using the term moaned Thompson implies he does not share this view. Thompson goes on to site the "Stanford Study of Writing" report by Andrea Lunsford, who argues that "We are in the midst of a literacy revolution". Her report looked at the everyday as well as the academic writing being done by students today. There was absolutely no evidence of "text speak" seen in the work she examined, but she did find there to be a definite rise in the amount of writing being done overall. The study showed that 38 percent of the writing that students were doing was outside of the classroom. She goes on to conclude that today’s youth are actually reviving literacy and taking it in bold new directions, with a stronger ability to assess and adapt to their audience.
The amount of support Thompson gives to Ms. Lunsford’s study leaves us to believe Mr. Thompson shares these views. He confirms this belief when he notes a comparison in the amount of writing done today to the lack of writing done outside of school in the past. Because people are using more text to communicate on an everyday basis they have become better at writing. He likens today’s writing to the "Greek tradition of argument" and says that students have become better at writing persuasively.
Coming from the generation of people that "never wrote anything outside of school", I recall that when I was a younger student and there were no cell phones, e-mail, etc., the only time I wrote anything was when it was assigned to me. The papers my friends and I wrote were generally dry and all followed the same cookie cutter format. Having peeked in on the postings of some of my classmates I am impressed with their ability to formulate and express their views. Most of them seem very comfortable with the "I say" portion of the assignment and easily insert themselves into their writing, whereas I have been struggling with this portion of the assignment. It’s only after reading some of the postings, and talking at length with Anna about this that I have been able to find my own voice on the subject. I have spent days agonizing over this essay and have discovered just how difficult it is to put together an intelligent thought. So yes, I would have to say that I agree with Mr. Thompson that technology has improved the writing of today. Hopefully it will improve my writing.