Reading Response "New Literacy"

In the article “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy,” it starts out with a satirical view of a London professor John Southerland, suggesting that technology is ruining how kids write these days. It then fires back by stating that a Stanford University is doing a study on student writings, concluding that we are on our way to literacy revolution not seen since Greek civilization. Andrea suggests that not only is things like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Etc. encouraging writing, but is actually “reviving” it. In his latest work, Clive Thompson suggests that the internet has drastically increased writing done out of a school environment. Before the internet, students rarely would ever write and now do to all these technological advances, it has unconsciously made kids write more than ever. Not only are kids writing more than the generations before, but they are also switching their techniques to fit their audience. The tones have changed making it more of an argument similar to the Greek traditions. Unlike writing a paper for an assignment where the professor is the only audience, kids are much more intrigued by writing for a larger scale audience such as reviews or opinions on topics or product.

My own view is that although I see some of these technological advances such as Twitter absurd, they are tools that are making students read and write more, essentially exercising their brains. From my experience, I have seen that fellow college students spend several hours a day on their Facebooks and whatnot when they could be studying or reading rather than “online socializing.” Though I concede that students are writing more than ever due to these technological advances, I still maintain that there are other more meaningful activities they could be partaking in. For example they could be getting out and exercising, reading, studying, or writing. Although some might object that by saying literacy is going in a cool new direction, I reply that in no way are online trends like blogging and twitter producing authors like Faulkner, Steinbeck, Eliot, Hesse, Vonnegut, Wilde, Salinger, and Fitzgerald. However, looking at a linguistics point of view language is not being deteriorated by these shorthand texts, and is not being brought into papers as well as conversations. I do concur that these online advances formulate arguments that are crucial to students writing and conversing skills. The issue is important because linguistics is an ever evolving entity that continues to grow with technology, therefore it is vital to keep up with it. I feel this article was rather eye opening in the sense that I never formulated the idea that so much writing was taking place before the internet was available. I now realize how much I write outside of the class via email, texting, and Facebook as opposed to ten years ago when the internet was not readily available at my fingertips. I definitely think that these online tools are in no way detrimental to writing essays or any other school assignments.