Essay rough draft

One reads in the mediums that they experience everyday. This may be through novels, magazines, newspapers and more recently online through the Internet.  With this new source of information, the way people read it is changing. An endless amount of information to read is at the hands of anyone who can get internet access. The internet also allows new information to become available at any time of the day, no longer do people have to wait for some new big news to be released through an article in the daily paper or magazine. Since this new information can so readily become available to people, new information can also lose interest fast by another new more important information. Because of this need to quickly satisfy a reader, the way people are writing is changing as well. Online writing needs to quickly get the readers attention and not be to long as it might bore the reader. The internet has also allowed reading and writing to come together more as it provides new opportunities to comment, criticize and question a writer. With this new source of media, society is adapting to maximize the potential it has to offer, and these adaptations call for a change in how one reads and writes both on and off the web.

            The internet has allowed people to read and write more, through their daily lives, than ever before.  Since information can be so easily distributed, people are eager to read the latest news. Carr says “ the net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information the flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind.” (carr) People want to take in new information, and now that it is easily available people want to continue reading it to learn more. Carr also states “my mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particle.” (carr) People expect to quickly go over large amounts of information, wanting to continue to take in as much information as possible. Thompson also says the internet has provided additional mediums for people to write in. “So much socialization takes place online, and it almost always involves text” though the text may not be long, well thought out pieces, it does keep people writing more often (Thompson). Similarly, Sullivan believes the internet has enticed more people to write. “Every writer since the printing press has longed for a means to publish himself and reach--instantly—any reader on earth” since this is now possible, people are more likely to write because they know it can be distributed to people interested in reading it (Sullivan).  The internet has positively changed reading and writing habits in the sense that people read more because more information is available to them and write more because writing is more easily distributed to people.

            In addition to getting people to write more, the internet has changed the style of how people write. Writing on the internet has no editor, and is solely controlled by the writer. Since the internet makes writing available to anyone, it has forced writers to identify and write to an audience. Thompson said this was  “something virtually no one in my generation did.” (Thompson) This was an important change because previously a majority of writing was only presented to its intended audience so it was only read in its intended context. Since it is now presented to anyone through the web, the writer must know his intended audience in order to have effective writing. Not only are people better able to write to a specific audience, that audience now has the possibility to comment and ask the writer questions about a piece. Sullivan says blogging is “at its best, a conversation rather than a production.” (Sullivan) For Sullivan, blogging becomes a conversation because readers are able to leave their comments and questions directly on his blog. He then has an opportunity to answer those questions, making his writing very conversational. Though not all online writing allows readers to leave comments, a reader can still post his comments else where online to spark conversation with others. By enabling writing to become more conversational, it no longer leaves the writer in a position of dominance over his audience, but brings reading and writing together.

            Online writing has become shorter than more traditional printed writing. Sullivan sees that shorter writing, though his blogging as something positive. He says “on the web one sentence links are as legitimate as thousand word diatribes.” (Sullivan) Because he is able to link to sources through his blogging, his writing does not need to be as long, explaining his sources, and readers are able to see his sources. With this new style of writing Sullivan says “the notion that blogging should some how replace traditional writing is as foolish as it is pernicious” (Sullivan).  One must be remembered that traditional writing will always have its place even as writing changes with new technology. A major issue seen with this shorter writing style, is its effect on readers. With the fast paced short writing on the internet, people may be less likely to read a longer article or print novel. Carr expresses concern with people tendencies to “power browse” instead of reading an entire article (carr). Since so much information is available to people, they do not want to spend the time to read a lengthy article or novel anymore. Sullivan has a similar concern but through saying “no one wants to read a 9,000 word treatise online,” but he presents it similar to his comment on blogging, it will not replace traditional reading, but online people do not want to read a lengthy article. Online writing has adapted to peoples desire to quickly scan and read articles. People must not solely read online, online reading is important to the future of reading, but it cannot replace traditional reading. Likewise with writing, one should not write in the same style online and for a formal paper. It is a power to be able to read and write in both settings, but one must know when to use each power.

            This is not the first time reading and writing have gone through a big change. The invention of the printing press and typewriter, both had similar changes on the availability of information to the public. Without change, reading and writing would become tiresome, repetitive tasks and no longer interest people. Change allows them to adapt to peoples needs, to better suit and interest them. With new technology and the internet people are able to distribute their writings to new audiences easily. Being able to publish ones own writing encourages more people to write because they know it will be read. Even if one is not posting his writings on the web, simply interacting with the web makes one write more than ever before. All this new writing on top of previous writings is now available to anyone at a click of a button. With the ability to easily access so much knowledge people are more eager to read on the web and search for articles of interest. The danger with this though, is people become accustomed to short readings on the web, and then sometimes find it difficult to transition back to longer web and print reading. Internet reading should be an addition, not a replacement, of traditional reading. The internet has provides the means to expand ones reading and writing capabilities. People need to maximize the new potential the internet has provided for reading and writing by doing just that, reading and writing on the internet.

             

Reaction to blogging

I have enjoyed writing blogs much more than I anticipated. The articles we have read so far have been on interesting relevant topics, so writing a short 250 word response to a single article has been easy to do, much more so than writing essays every week. I have also enjoyed getting to read and look at other peoples’ point of view on the same article, something that often is not possible to do when writing longer essays. I have never had a writing course that treated writing as conversational as we do through this class in blogging, and I think it is beneficial to be able to freely read everyone’s writing so spark ideas for your own. The most challenging part, mostly because I just forget, has been commenting on other peoples’ blog posts. It is not difficult to write and ask questions in the comments, I just never remember. My attitude toward reading and writing on the web has remained fairly unchanged. I see reading and writing on the web as an important thing for us to be doing, and something we cannot ignore. Everyday we are becoming more technology dependent so we must know how to take in and gather information on the web and also be able to write in a form that is presentable and readable on the web. Without knowing this, we will fall behind on the new reading and writings standards as they change with the web. 

Definition of literacy

Scribner goes into a deep discussion on what it means to be considered literate. Literacy does not have a simple meaning on whether one can read or write, it is much more complicated than that. Literacy also carries different meaning for different cultures and societies thus making it harder for a single broad definition. Without knowing a definition for literate, it is impossible for one to judge the literacy of a society. Literacy can stem from many means as Scribner described it is adaptation, power, and saving grace. Literacy as adaptation means one learns enough to understand and function in a given society. Literacy as power describes it as having an elite, more literate, knowledgeable group because of their literacy. Literacy as a saving grace can provide one with more meaning in their life based off readings, commonly associated with religious affiliations. Hedges and Carr never state a clear definition for literacy and focus on literacy as an individual process when Scribner describes it as a social process. Without stating a definition, neither can say that society is becoming more illiterate. Both though imply a meaning for literacy as power or understanding, when literacy encompasses much more than that. With this generalized meaning of literacy, they attempt to show that people are becoming more illiterate. This is hard to prove though because what it means to be literate in society is changing. With the introduction of the Internet, how society reads and takes in information has changed, thus changing the definition of literacy. Thompson sees this new change as a drastic, but going in a good direction. Unlike Hedges and Carr, he sees the Internet as a means for people to write more than previous generations. Through this, he says young people have learned to write and interest a particular audience, something that was hardly seen in previous generations writings. Looking at it like this, one of the most pressing concerns for literacy is forcing people to be literate in mediums that may not be important in the future. Scribner said “today’s standards for functional competency need to be considered in the light of tomorrow’s requirements” meaning literacy today may change in the future. If one does not prepare for the future, one who is literate now may become illiterate.   

Illiteracy

A large number of people in the US cannot read at a sufficient level or cannot read at all. These people can survive much of today’s world though because much of our culture is print or picture based. Since this number of people that are illiterate is so high, political campaigns have changed how they campaign to make sure the illiterate have the possibility to follow them. Politicians can get elected by appealing to the illiterate in childish ways and not based off true educated votes. Not only is much of the US illiterate, many high school and college graduates have not read a book after graduation showing that even those that can read, do not. I find it sad that the reading level that presidential debates are written in now is round 6-7^th grade.  It is scary to think that is the reading level a majority of Americans are at so our political system has to work at a similar level. . Also so much of culture is picture based like Hedge’s described. One can go order food by simply looking at a picture and saying a number. Hedges and Carr both talk about how today’s population is moving away from print material and see this as presenting problems. When looking at it based of Carr’s article, it is does not seem as much of an issue as Hedges presents. Hedges’ sees that since people are not reading and buying print material they are becoming more illiterate. This cannot solely be the issue for illiteracy in the US because he said about 92 million adults are illiterate or semi illiterate. These people would have grown up in a much less internet dependent society so there has to be so other factor that caused for such a large number of illiterate people

Is Google making us stupid?

Google is changing how people read, write and access everything.  With having so much information so readily available, people are using and reading it in a different manor.  People want to take in as much information as possible, but they no longer want to read a long novel to do so.  Reading on the Internet is much different than reading on paper. When someone reads something on the Internet, it has to be a short enough that it will not over whelm the reader and interesting enough to keep the readers attention. If it is not this, the reader will move on to something else because he can find something more interesting to read instead. Getting accustomed to reading short articles or summaries on the web makes it hard to then transition back and read a novel. Readers today want just a summary of the important facts and do not want to spend the time finding the facts themselves. As reading becomes less in depth, writing naturally does too.  Writers now have to write a shorter engaging and almost summary like piece in order to get people to read it.  Google is not making us stupid, it is just changing how one reads and writes.  Since there is this change from past or more traditional writing, one might consider it to be worse. This is not the first time though some technology has changed how one reads and writes. In Carr’s article he describes how other people thought different technological advances like the printing press and typewriter changed how one reads a writes. These changes do not automatically make one more stupid, but since it is different from what is expected it is often considered bad or worse. 

This change in how reading and writing is done can clearly be seen through this class. Firstly, we kept an Internet log, not a log of books, magazines or printed material we read for a week.  Our Internet logs show too that we are fast paced, not spending long periods of time on any one site reading something.  Blogging also is new form of writing that has strayed from traditional writing. A majority of writing for our class is our blogs, not essays that would be expected in a traditional writing class.  These do not make us stupid; people are just afraid of change thinking it will make us stupid.