Blogs - From Printing Press to Blog Essay

Birkerts provides three effects that will occur as a result of moving away from the printed word to the electronic media. The first effect is the language erosion. He explains the reader that transition from books will lead to the “complexity and distinctiveness of verbal and written communication, which are deeply bound to transaction of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of plainspeak” (9). In the future our language will start to become more simple and dumb. Whereas, by reading books and printed materials people are able to dig more depth and understand and imagine the contents. But, soon this will start to disappear as people will no longer be able to understand the complex language of the literature and intelligence level of people will start to decrease. The second effect of electronic media is the flattening of historical perspectives. This means that due to the electronic media the history will start to recede because the “printed page itself is a link” and when this link is broken the past will gradually diminish (10). Birkerts explains the audience that the past is best represented in the books and libraries. Therefore, moving away from the printed word means moving away from the past and its history. The last effect is the waning of the private self. Birkerts worries that in the future people will forget how to live because of the electronic

In this article, “Why Even the Worst Bloggers Are Making Us Smarter” by Clive Thompson, talks about how much words we write together as a world per day. The amount of words we use now and back in the days without internet is fascinating. Before the internet, most people only wrote during school days and after that no one took writing seriously. “Altogether, we compose some 3.6 trillion words every day on email and social media — the equivalent of 36 million books.” Internet is something we all use in this world. Most of us use it for communication purpose and others to share their stories and educate others. Digital communications has helped us to become better writers because parents were focusing if their kids were reading every day more

The life of a writer was easier, in some ways, in the age of the typewriter: you sat, nothing but a blank page staring back at you, waiting for your fingers to move. No smartphone at the ready to buzz with the latest text from your wife,

Developments in digital technology are expanding our understanding of “writing.” To the extent that technology is available and appropriate, by the end of their first

Online media is pushing literacy in different and cool directions. Kids and teenagers today are coming up with new ways of writing. Clive tells us in The New Literacy,¨The brevity of texting, and status updating, teaches young people to develop haiku-like concision.¨ When kids text they write short and fast things and don't go into much detail. Since we are changing the way we write, in four years from now when we have even more new technology imagine how many more ways of writing there will be. He also says that, ¨For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.¨ But still most people think

Ideas spread rapidly now because there was a way to communicate through writings. There was now an availability of books of any kind. Gutenberg's invention of the printing press had a major effect on society which affects our lives now. Learning in many places increased just because of the printing press. Books were now cheaper because of how the amount of books that could be produced now.

What is so amazing about writing and reading? Well, As Anais Nin once put it: “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” and I’m sure everyone has felt it, the magic in putting yourself into words. With my blog, I like to believe that I can share such “taste,” because it is not only a way for me to improve my writing skills, but also to express myself through the things that interest me.

As technology has progressed so has our composing practices. Dennis Baron, a linguist who studies literacy and communication technologies, wrote From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies, a paper about how writing has progressed as a result of the progression of writing technology, for example the pencil and computer. Grabill et. Al, a collaboration of professors and assistant professors, wrote From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies, a paper about the writing technologies that students use most, and there importance to the student. The Grabill et. Al paper demonstrates how students have moved toward computers and away from paper for writing. Technology has greatly affected composing practices as it has progressed and developed.

Writing began with using hieroglyphics to express thought and manuscripts to writing through technology using hashtags-tweets and OMGs- text.

A writing ecology is a dynamic, interconnected system of communication, which works together through interaction and sharing. As the term ‘ecology’ traditionally refers to the relationships between organisms in an environment, the ability to metaphorically link this to a concept of writing redefines the complexity of networked technologies and the influences of technological change. The ability to participate in a digitally evolving space opens up new possibilities and opportunities when accessing and expressing knowledge and information. Snowfall (Branch, 2016) is an explicit example of this as it demonstrates key concepts through optimising its environment. By allowing the audience to actively engage themselves in the text, Snowfall revolutionised traditional media in its time.

I find Cascio’s article to be interesting because it changed my perspective on the tools and gadgets we use everyday. I no longer consider writing simply as a method of materialising ideas, but I have now realised that writing is also a method for people to enhance the ability of their memory and to share their thoughts and ideas throughout time and space. And that the phone I constantly have at my side is an extension of myself, for example it enhances my ability to remember people’s birthdays and extends my effective range and speed of communication.

Before the internet became what it is today, people would write their ideas, notes, and thoughts in private journals that they would keep locked away. Nowadays, people don 't put their thoughts in journals anymore, instead they go on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat to post their thoughts. These people have resulted to sharing everything they do online. People have blogs to discuss their daily routines, videos to show you how they do things, and

It almost sounds like carrying out a ritual as if the printing press were a sacrificial object. In contrast, nowadays, the installation process of the blogging is a simple automated process, which involves ability to type on QWERTY keyboards and use internet, thus people with the least skill can easily become a blogger. For some bloggers, weblog can serves simply as a space for daily journals or a quick memo of their thoughts, since the main attribute of the weblog is personal expression. Nonetheless, the blogging software is being commercialized and marketed for business purpose. So far, "few businesses have adopted blogging for use by employees on company time... John Robb, president and chief operating officer of UserLand Software Inc., which develops blogging technology, envisions individual workers using blogging tools to jot down their thoughts during the course of the day and as a platform for collaboration among colleagues. A doctor might make note of a new symptom that's begun to appear in patients during the summer months, or an insurance agent may observe that a series of accidents involved a certain vehicle model"2.

The clear effects that social media, email, blogs, and Twitter have on writing in this decade is bluntly obvious. Writing has become choppy, shortened sentences with more abbreviations than actual words and this is due to mainly being limited to 140 characters or less. Email is mainly informal and less stiff when it comes to language and writing, unless composing for business is the main objective. Students tend to hand in reports or papers that are written in formats and sentences which include abbreviations or read like emails exchanged between friends.

It’s been forever since I’ve sat down at my computer and have actually written an entire blog post. I’ve sat down with the intention of doing so and started to write but nothing ever comes of it. I just give up on the idea. Putting it off. “Maybe tomorrow.” I’m not even sure if anyone will even read this or still checks to see if I’ve posted yet. I want to apologize to everyone who was reading what I was writing but more then anything I want to apologize to myself. Because I left myself down more than anything else.