Summary Of Clive Thompson On The New Literacy

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

Today's young generation has been getting a lot of slack from older generations due to the amount technology they have. Those who have negative things to say about this generation sometimes say that they're not as smart as the previous generations because of the new technology that is available. Literary critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, Cynthia Haven, argues that the young generation of today has actually written more than any other generation and they insert more passion into what they’re writing about as well. Haven’s purpose in writing about this seems to be to show how much this generation does write compared to what others have said in articles and

In the article, Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not so Fast written by Andrea A. Lunsford, Lunsford tells about how youth today are perceived to be less intelligent and too dependant upon technology. She goes on to show that she doesn’t agree with that assumption, she states that she has been working with college writes for over thirty years and has conducted studies showing the opposite. Lunsford thinks that with the advances in technology students are actually gaining more of a range of writing technique and greater adaptability to the changing audiences that students encounter. Through the exposure to different social medias and excess to people across the world, students have become more well rounded writers and show no decrease from the writing

Additionally, having social media and the internet, texting, email etc., also creates more chances of writing. Most parents and teachers think that this is causing a downfall in school and literacy capabilities but in reality its actually helping. According to Thompson (Source G), she believes we are in the middle of a literacy revolution. This generation writes more than any other generation before. Most peoples’ writing happens outside the classroom. It

We carry our cellphones with us at all times, and with all this online connection, you would think that stepping back and disconnecting is a huge achievement. But this is a new way of life. Nathan Jurgenson, in his article “The IRL Fetish” says, “We have come to understand more and more of our lives through the logic of digital connection. Social media is more than something we log onto; it’s something we carry within us. We can’t log off.”. He explains how we are so deeply connected with technology that it is nearly impossible to stay ‘old-fashioned’. We are learning to accept technological advancements because they are inevitable. In other words, to adapt to this new form of literacy is much easier than avoiding it. In recognition that texting truly is literacy, one English teacher had her students put excerpts of Richard III into “text speak” to show that they fully understand the material. Educators are embracing texting as a new form of learning because it clearly is not going away. Students enjoy texting as a way to escape reality and fail to recognize the literary benefits. Texting will continue to encourage students to read and write as well as improve spelling with phonological

Not So Fast,” Andrea Lunsford argues that rather than leading to a new illiteracy, the digital technologies in the modern world help students to develop their ability of writing. Not only that students are daferrors than 25 years ago, actually with less spelling errors. In order to help students with the challenges, the teacher should offer solid instructions and encouragement rather than derision.

People claim that new developments have caused kids to be so dependent on their devices, that they can't think for themselves. This claim can also be turned around by saying that technology has given kids more opportunities and chances to learn, and in particular, more opportunities to write (Source 7, Clive Thompson). An example of this is a study done at Stanford University, where it was discovered that Stanford students did a stunning 38 percent of their writing outside of the classroom (Source 7, Clive Thompson). With the developments of E-mail, texting, and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, younger people are constantly writing in their every day lives. In the past, people would, for the most part, stop writing once the finishes their education. Now however, people are more comfortable, and more used to, writing. And while the argument that technology has decreased level of the vocabulary and vernacular of young people is true in some cases, the increase in writing shown by young people has led to a greater ability to convey information to other people, and a greater comfort in talking to people they don't know (Source 7, Clive Thompson). As Andrea Lunsford says, "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek Civilization" (Source 7, Clive

In response to Mitoko Rich, “Literacy Debate – Online, R U Really Reading?” In the 21st century, children are learning via many different sources, whether through textbooks, internet, blogs, etc. Therefore, it was not surprising to read what was mentioned in this article. Reading in the digital age is causing a debate, especially in regards to students. After reading the article, I began to wonder; is it possible that digital text can cause more harm than good? Can digital text take away the value of reading books? And what is happening psychologically to a child when they are using digital text?

Does the internet affect the way people think? This is the question Nicholas Carr answers in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr writes about the negative aspects of relying on an outside source for information in order to argue that Google could be making us less intelligent. Carr’s general audience is anyone with access to the internet because he believes most people with access to the internet usually abuse it. Because the internet supplies a large quantity of information, people are less likely to learn for themselves.

Carr makes the point that throughout time people have always questioned new technology. Socrates was doubtful of the development of writing, because he feared it would make people forgetful and ignorant (Carr 394), but now that we look at how drastically the invention of writing changed the world, it seems necessary to life. Nowadays people even look down on those who cannot write and consider them at a disadvantage. A similar controversy arose when Gutenberg invented the printing press. Some people worried that it would make society lazy and less studious (Carr 395). Life in the twenty first century seems unimaginable without books, magazines, newspapers; the population of people who do not use these tools on a daily basis is minuscule. Carr

At this rate, the story that Bradbury is telling could sooner than later become reality. A few years back, technology was not as developed and was just mainly for communication. Now there is no place to go but to facebook, instagram, etc. There are also gadgets such as spell check which isn't helping with education either. People are also starting to take advantage of technology, and to them there is no point to do the work when you could just look it up. According to TechnoBuffalo, "… 78 percent of teens aged 12 – 17 now own a cell phone..." This percentage has also continued to rise and has no reason to stop now.

The article, “Digital Literacy Is the Key to the Future, But We Still Don’t Know What It Means,” is written by Marcus Wohlsen. He writes his article, to explain to the public what digital literacy is. Wohlsen knows that the increasing there is an increasing usage of technology in the public life, and to adapt to this they are going to need to be literate is using it. In his article, he explains to the public what this literacy is, and how much one needs to be literate in technology. Wohlsen effectively uses multiple viewpoints of experts and relatability to engage the reader and explain to them what digital literacy is all about.

In the article” Is Texting Killing the English Language?” from TIME, they start the article off with one critic referring to texting as the downfall for the written word. “Penmanship for illiterates,” The article goes not agree with the critic. The article explains that texting is the new kind of talking. In these times there is hardly any hand written correspondence. If you want to reach out to someone you send then an email or the most common is a text. Texting has made reaching out to someone so easy and convenient. If you have a thought, or an idea you grab your phone and send a text message. You usually have a response within seconds. I don’t think that technology is killing the written language; I feel that it is just making it easier to have quick communication with others. I feel that texting is like short hand you are abbreviating words to get your message across quickly. Our society is so rushed and

Technology is quickly becoming a huge part of day to day life for nearly everyone. If you walk around most places, you will see a large percent of people either on their cell phones, on their computers, or using some other electronic device. While some of it is being used for business and other important things, most of the time, it is more for entertainment. It is because of this that people claim that technology is changing the way people think today. In his article “Is Google making us stupid”, Nicholas Carr argues that people have become dependent upon the internet for information rather than having to work to figure it out. In the article “Does texting effect writing”, Michaela Cullington argues that people’s texting is effecting the way people write because people don’t show emotion when texting, so that is translating back into their writing. Both arguments are effective, both appeal to emotion, but the more effective argument is Carr’s because it is a more sound argument based on logic and credibility.

Now days with the rise of digital technology many physical items such as pen and paper are slowly being replaced by computers and smart phones. But is this really a good thing? I read books and of course so do many other people in this class and around the globe. But since the creation of ‘e-readers’ more and more people have been converting to the technology based side of reading. Although technology is slowly becoming more predominant in this era we should not rely on it to always entertain and keep us occupied.