Charlotte Lakin
Writ 1122
Professor Leake
01/27/2013
How is Technology Affecting Us?
Is
technology affecting our literacy or is it just creating a new definition for
literacy? Literacy is an ever-evolving concept that changes with new ways of
reading and writing. Reading used to be only necessary in order to understand
the Bible or other holy books but now we define a society by how much of its
population can read or write. Literacy is definitely being changed by new
technologies but whether it is a good or bad change I am not completely sure. I
have never really enjoyed reading that much so I cannot describe how technology
is affecting my reading abilities but maybe it’s because of new technologies
that I do not enjoy reading.
Nicholas
Carr writes in his essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” about how he struggles
with reading longer pieces with new technologies, such as the Internet. Carr
claims, “The Net seems to be…chipping away [his]
capacity for concentration and contemplation”(Carr 2). He believes that the way
information on the Internet, in short snippets, is determining how our brain
wants to get all of our information. I agree that the speed at which I can get
information has rapidly changed and has affected my ability to research
anything. If it isn’t in the first page of Google I most likely will change the
wording of my search rather than press the dreaded next button. Also, the
length of something on the Internet also determines whether or not I will put
the effort into reading all of it. Obviously for a class I will read something
lengthy or if it is a topic or a book I am interested in I will read it but
other than that I will just skim or completely ignore a long article.
Even
though I might skip the occasional long article I do not completely agree that
the Internet is lowering our nations’ literacy rates. I do agree that it is
changing what we read and how we read but I think that we are reading the same
amount as we used to. Someone who reads the newspaper every morning might still
read the newspaper but might read the online version instead of the paper
version. I also do not think that it is affecting our writing abilities. My
writing abilities have not decreased because of my increase in the use of
Facebook. Andrea Lunsford, in her essay “Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast”,
writes about the effect of new technologies on college students writing
abilities. She
talks about how we can easily change from levels of formalities whether we are
writing a Facebook message to a friend, an email to a professor, or a research
paper. Lunsford discusses the impact of new forms of writing (texting,
Twittering, Facebooking) and states that “rather than leading to a new
illiteracy, these activities seemed to help them develop a range or repertoire
of writing styles, tones, and formats along with a range of abilities”(Lunsford
1). Because of technology, as
Lunsford argues, we are becoming writers with a greater variety for style. We
can write a Tweet that is limited to 160 characters or we can write a 1500 word
essay. Before the Internet and the new technologies associated with it, people
would write letters, books, poems, or essays but not much else. Now, we can
write in a whole variety of different styles.
Technology
is helping the amount we read because of how readily available everything is
through the Internet. We can find almost every essay, piece of literature, or
article online. We can also have access to this with the simple click of a button.
With the ease of finding something to read online people can read much more
frequently and easily. Also, if you just want to read a paragraph of a book you
can do that much more easily now and a laptop is much more portable than a few
books if you want to read one section from multiple books. Personally, I am
much more likely to read something online than I am in a book, magazine, or
newspaper.
Chris
Hedges, in his essay “America the Illiterate”, argues that majority of our
population have become so absorbed by the Internet and how it displays its
information that they are “informed by simplistic, childish narratives and
clichés”(Hedges 1). It is true that when on the Internet we are more attracted
to something that has appealing colours and pictures but that does not mean
that we are only interested in websites based on their pictures. Just because
someone spends a lot of time on the Internet does not mean that “childish
narratives and clichés” are the only thing that they are interested in. Someone
could spend hours online reading newspapers, articles, or academic papers.
Technology might be affecting people the way Hedges believes but it might only
be affecting the less educated people in this way. However, people who were
reading a lot before technology are still reading a lot.
Works Cited
Carr, Nicholas.
"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The
Atlantic. The Atlantic, June-July 2008.
Web. 27 Jan.
2013.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/>.
Hedges,
Chris. "America the Illiterate." Editorial. Truth Dig. Zuade Kaufman, 10 Nov. 2008.
Web. 27 Jan.
2013. <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the _illiterate/>.
Lunsford,
Andrea A. “Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast” Editorial. Stanford
University, 10
Nov. 2010.
Web. 27 Jan 2013.
<http://www.stanford.edu/group/ssw/cgi-bin/materials/OPED_Our_Semi-Literate_Youth.pdf>.
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