Reading Response to Birkerts

In my in class essay I discussed today's technology and it's effect on student's academic writing. I focused on some great points made by Andrea Lunsford (Professor at Stanford) and Clive Thompson (author) in Thompson's article "The New Literacy". Including; that young people today are writing far more than any generation before them and student's ability to asses their audience and adapt their writing to their audience. Professor Lunsford's Stanford study showed that students are doing more than one third of their writing (38%) outside of class. Lunsford also proves that students have no problem jumping from facebook update, to English essay, and back to facebook, keeping their audience in mind the entire time. Essentially technology is providing students with a stress free/pressure free writing environment, and without them even realizing it making them better writers.

In his essay "The Owl Has Flown" Sven Birkerts considers the other side of this debate. Looking at the reading we do today, and all the information technology gives us a chance to attain. Birkerts states "The modern viewer is a cosmopolitan at one remove, at least potentially. He has a window on the whole world," (pg.31) Birkerts goes on to state. "we are experiencing in our times a loss of depth-a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical consciousness. Its apotheosis is what was once called wisdom." (pg. 32) Basically, Birkerts is saying that technology is giving us the ability to know whats going on anywhere in the world, "a window on the whole world" as Birkerts puts it. However he believes this is resulting in depth less skimming of texts and that people no longer find meaning in the text they read.

Birkerts writing brought to my attention something I never even considered when writing my in class essay, that being technologies effect on the reading we do. I feel technology gives us all the tools we need to not only become better readers but better writers as well. Although some might object that technology is the cause of depth-less reading and bad writing. I maintain that technology provides students with all the tools needed to become stronger readers as well as writers. It is up to each individual to take advantage of the resources technology has given them.