Reading Response #3

The ongoing discussion of how technology affects reading, writing, and researching has been brought up in recent articles and literature. On the one hand, some believe that technology is hurting good prose and encourages skimming over important information. On the other hand, others claim that technology has benefited reading, writing, and researching because it gives more opportunities and reasons to write and allows more information to be at one’s fingertips.
Clive Thompson gave an analysis on the effects of technology in his recent article Clive Thompson on the New literacy. Thompson reported that Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, conducted a study to determine the effects of technology in student writings. From 2001 through 2006, she collected several forms of writing from a variety of students. In her research she found that students today were writing far more than any other generation because of the communication opportunities available on the computer. She also found that their writings for class possessed a way of writing that connected with their audience and continued to have good prose. She contributes this to the way students communicate in a public manner today.
Sven Birkerts, a critic and book reviewer who writes frequently for the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New Republic, wrote in his book The Gutenberg Elegies about the ways technology has affected writing, reading and researching. Birkerts states, “In our culture, access is not the problem, but proliferation is. And the reading act is necessarily different than it was in the earliest days.” Birkerts emphasizes that having the information is not causing bad research skills but it is the way we use it that is causing problems, such as not reading something well. Birkerts also states that “readers today tend to move across surfaces, skimming, hasting from one sight to the next” with the impression that we no longer read deeply anymore. In the past there was less available text so one would read it over and over again and gain deep understanding.
I believe that technology has provided many opportunities for new ways of communication and research, allowing the ability to receive needed information fast and in the comfort of one’s own home. It also gives people a way to stay connected with one other. I have found technology to be a benefit to reading, writing, and research, as it saves time in our busy lives.
We may think of technology as either helping or hindering communications. Technology can help by providing numerous options for communicating and writing. Technology can also be a hindrance if one fails to comprehend the subject matter. Overall, technology offers many benefits to reading, writing, and researching.