Modern Technology's Affect on Writing
I agreed with the following quote from the article by Karp, “…while
the type of error has changed, the ratio of errors to words has held steady for
more than 100 years.” This quote also supports several of the historical statements
shown by Josh McWhorter in the TED talk he gave. Written language being fairly new in the timeline
of history, it makes sense that it has changed and evolved with the technology
and tools used by society, but that doesn’t mean that writing skills have
gotten worse with these changes.
“The kinds of skills
Zachary has developed — locating information quickly and accurately,
corroborating findings on multiple sites — may seem obvious to heavy Web users.
But the skills can be cognitively demanding.” This is a quote from the New York Times article that I also
agreed with. I know this to be true from
personal experience. Looking for,
finding, analyzing, and using information from web articles and web sites takes
as much skill and time as finding it in written form. This is mostly due to the fact that there is
so much information available, and it can be found quickly and easily. Instead of two or three written sources, one
can find ten or fifteen on the Web. The
key is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the information found, and
there are even tools available to do that.
This topic is particularly interesting to me because I’m an
English teacher. When I started
teaching, in the late 1980s, there was no such thing as a cell phone, and
students had never heard of texting. Now I’m teaching the same age of student
the same subject, but texting is an integral part of most of their lives. I haven’t noticed a significant decline in
writing skills, but I have noticed that I have to emphasize “formal” writing
skills with my students, and explain the purpose for it in life. Just as was stated in the TED talk, it’s
become apparent to me that students have learned a new language. “ …the writing
we produce is not getting worse. Instead, it is simply adapting to the
modern world.” (Karp, 2010) Students need to understand that their texting
language is different, and a language to be used in certain contexts. “Bad and
good writing is in the eye of the beholder…It’s all in the relationship of the
recipient to you.” (Karp, 2010)
I don’t believe that reading skills have declined because of
the Internet and texting. “Books aren’t out of the picture, but they’re only
one way of experiencing information in the world today.” (Motoko, 2008)
Students are simply finding a way to navigate the world they live in, and our
society is increasingly global. Because
of the Internet, there is more information out there, right at our fingertips.
This was never the case before. Students
are curious information seekers. They
don’t need to be taught to look in only one place for their information, they
need to be encouraged to continue learning, growing, and seeking
information. Their ways of doing this
have changed and adapted with the tools available to them. That doesn’t make them less skilled; it
expands their abilities and makes them more capable. “…the Internet has created
a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount.”
(Motoko, 2008)
Karp, Josh.
"Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?" Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning. 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 June 2015.
Rich, Motoko.
"Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 July 2008. Web. 4 June 2015.
The quote at the end of your post by Motoko regarding not discounting this type of language and reading, makes me question as how much of the topic is up for debate simply because at the heart of the debate are teenagers. Similar to disregarding slang used by youth, text speak is disregarded because much of it exists in the teenage culture. I feel that our society does much to dismiss anything to do with youth culture, not giving credence to the impact and contribution to our society.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated seeing that you haven’t noticed a pattern of a decrease in writing skills. However, noting that you’ve had to specify when to write formally makes me ponder the long term implications. A few generations from now, will the more formal writing disappear? I believe so, not in a cynical way, but realistically language and writing always changes. If it didn’t, we would still be reading and speaking as they did in the Shakespearean era.
Personally, I feel that I write better using digital media. I can type quicker than I can write, have more fluidity in organizing, editing, and revising, not to mention a built in spell checker, and more efficient ways to access the dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia.
Our thoughts about digital reading and conventional writing practices are similar. We chose to use the same quote from the Karp article, “…while the type of error has changed, the ratio of errors to words has held steady for more than 100 years.” I liked this quote because it shows that writing has always had errors in some way. It’s interesting that you, as an English teacher, haven’t noticed a change in student writing over the years. This reinforces the fact that texting isn’t killing writing. I like that you call it “formal” writing.
ReplyDeleteDigital media has affected my reading and writing practices because I am guilty of using “text language” when I text, although it depends who I am texting. When I’m texting my friends, I’m not worried about using “text language.” However, if I need to text a colleague, I’m more aware to not use “text language.” I still use correct punctuation and capitalization when I text anyone though.
When I think of how digital media has affected my family, I think of my sister-in-law. She will download books on her iPhone and read off that little screen instead of going and buying the book at a bookstore. She says it’s more convenient to just download the book off the internet. Also, it’s easier to carry her phone around rather than her phone and a book. She rarely, if ever, leaves the house without her phone and this way, she always has her book too.