Reading Response 3

After reading “The New Literacy” by Clive Thompson, I had developed many new perspectives on the effect that our modern age of technology was having on our writing. By “our writing” I am referring to the writing that students of my generation are developing. I have one main belief after recreating my ideas on technological advances in our world and their role in writing. It is that online websites where you can contribute your ideas to someones discussion that interest you, such as a blog or facebook, are beneficial to our writing. It teaches us to adapt to our audiences, and change the way we talk to people given the situation or discussion. Not only because of how these websites are designed so that you can instantly share your ideas, but because it is so convenient and easy to share your ideas on them. Since it is so convenient, it makes it more accessible than other forms of discussion writing, so people do it more and it benefits their writing.
Sven Birkerts disagrees when he writes “the harder the work, the more we need to do it.” Birkerts is insisting that when reading is harder to do because we should be analyzing and processing it more, we need to do it more. Granted, he is discussing reading so I assume, and I am discussing writing, he is generally unspecific when he makes this argument. So I can relate this to my beliefs on writing. His belief does not shake the foundation of my beliefs in technologies benefits in our education or writing. If it were true, then you would be arguing we needed to write more letters by hand and mail them to hold a conversation instead of writing to someone instantly via internet, because it is more difficult. When realistically, the ease in writing in a conversation provided by the internet create a more accessible way for people to indulge in writing in a faster way. Since people can respond faster and to a more vast variety of audiences, it trains them to adapt to who they are writing to more often, further refining their writing. As opposed to writing by hand and mailing a letter, waiting for days to get a response so that you can reply to one person. Sure online writing is easier, but thats why it's reviving writing. Because it's easier and more accessible, so more people do it. Which is why in this situation, the easier the work, the more we need to do it. To continue to train ourselves to write in different varieties to different people. Easier and more accessible is better with writing.