As we progress into the digital age, we are seeing changes in the multimedia use. Music, movies, and literature are all noticeably different compared to before when we didn’t have the magical wonders of the internet. But how is technology affecting all of this? Better yet, how is the internet affecting literature in America? Is the internet a place where our next generation can find good articles and pieces to read? Maybe the internet is making it easier for us to easily write simple blog entries and some serious papers. Or perhaps the internet is actually causing younger generation to have a shorter attention span to what they read and on top of that, ruining the proficiency of the writing skills of young America.
Princeton’s definition of literacy is the ability to read and write. Dictionary.com states that literacy is the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write. What do these really mean though? In “America the Illiterate” Chris Hedges believes that being literate means that you should be able to read a mortgage document and understand ever nick and crack inside of this (to me this makes absolutely no sense because I believe if you gave this task to a majority of Americans, many would fail in fully comprehending it). I believe that literacy is the ability for people to be able to comprehend what they read and write in a professional tone of voice. When it comes to reading, I believe that America’s youth should easily be able to read the New York Times or CNN comprehend what the article is saying and should be able to put back some input. Writing on the other hand is a different story. Literacy in writing should be the ability to compose documents such as an email, short blog, or even an article that would be pertinent to many people. I do believe that it is important for the youth of America to be literate in today’s world. But does the internet affect our youth’s literacy?
Many people believe that the internet is causing our youth to become illiterate compared to previous decades. In the Princeton review of presidential election speeches, the grade level of the speeches decreased as the years grew closer and closer to present day. Chris Hedges explains that this is because the internet has caused us to become illiterate. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid” Nicholas Carr states the facts that Google has made us lose the ability to read and comprehend long articles online. I do believe however, that these articles are slightly biased and do not take other things into effect. When Chris states that the presidential speeches deteriorate in grade level, he fails to mention that this is long before the start of the internet. These speeches probably dropped in grade level because it would make more sense to appeal to more people (in the sense that more people could understand the speech). The reasoning behind why people do not understand longer articles could possibly be simply the fact that the reader has no interest in the article.
If the internet is not hindering America’s literacy rate, what is it doing? I do believe that the internet is actually improving our youth’s literacy rates in many different ways. With high speed internet being easily accessible to everyone, it is much easier to be constantly reading any article. My parents always said “the more you read the smarter you’ll be” and I never understood why they said this until recently. I believe they said this because reading improves how fast and how well you interpret text. That being said since there is so much out there for students to read, their ability to interpret different text should be a lot better than those who don’t read a lot online.
Not only is the internet a place for us to read, but also a place where we can write. With the simple use of the internet anyone can publish anything they want to the web with a few simple clicks. Before the use of the internet, only the rich or those good enough could publish their writings for the general people. This would mean that more people would have less of an incentive to write those small articles that would only be read by a few people. Now, however since it is so easy to publish online, many people will take a few extra minutes to post up what they want to say. People like me are examples of this. I write this article with the knowledge that I will be able to spread this to readers like you. Writing more in our daily lives is beneficial in the sense that we will be much better versed in what to say and how we want to express our selves. Had it not been for the internet many of us would only be able to write personal narratives about ourselves or perhaps a research paper instead of good articles full of opinions and argument.
I do believe that we should integrate technology much more into younger generations to improve literacy rates. Today’s forms of writing seem very useless in daily practice. How are students really going to apply a letter to the reviewer in their future or even a research paper? Sure there will be some that will apply these pieces to their daily lives, but I would say only twenty percent at most would find it applicable to daily life. I believe that it would be much more important to teach the youth how to write a formal letter with the use of very eloquent words, or maybe even how to take good notes. Integration of the internet into studies can be done with many different activities. Teachers could force more communication between the students through email, have students write blogs, or even have them write short articles in response to certain events.
Not only could the internet benefit students in their writing proficiencies but also in their reading proficiencies. With the speed of computers and the internet, when we get online our screen is full of different browsers and tabs, all simultaneously up with different information and text. In Bronwyn T.Williams article we see that the young technology frenzied generations is accustomed to having multiple things going on which teaches multitasking skills. Throughout the week these students will read more words in one week online than in the class. Since students are already reading so much online why not have them write about what they read online? Incorporating technology into student life could never be so much easier.
There are many people that do oppose the integration of technology with school. Betty J. Sternberg brings up the concern that students will begin using text terms (Ex; C U L8ER) instead of formal way and also that incorporating emails into student activity opens them up to internet predators. However, what people that shares the same opinion as Betty Sternberg is that if teachers emphasize the fact that written text should be done in a formal manner, text language would not prevail. As for internet predators as long as the teacher made clear that emailing outside of the school was strictly prohibited problems would not arise. Many of the problems that people see can easily be fixed by constantly emphasizing to the students what should be expected from them and what they can and can’t do.
I believe that with the progression in technology and internet younger generations will be much more literate than compared to those before. The technology based generation is now reading much more every day, even more than in classes. Online readings not only keep their minds interpreting harder and harder text but it also keeps them up to date with current events. Writing is also much easier and much more relevant to everyday use. All these are great reasons for our society to incorporate internet and technology into our school systems. And if you don’t agree than you’re a communist.

Over the time of blogging

Over the past few weeks I have been writing on this blog for this class’s purposes. After reading articles dealing with different topics coming from different sides of the argument you sometimes just want to argue against those articles and say how much you dislike the writer. Blogging has been my way of channeling out my feelings for these things. It simply surprises me how easy it is for me to blog out all of my feelings in a sitting without having to think too much. At the beginning of this assignment, I thought that 250 words would take a little bit of time to come up with. But after going through blogs I realized that it really isn’t that hard to write 250 words and that really 250 words can only get your basic ideas down. Had there would have been a 250 word limit, I believe that this assignment would have been much much harder just because we would have to condense all of our feelings to a short paragraph.
One thing that I would regrettably like to share is that my writing and reading habits haven’t changed dramatically over the period of this assignment (however this should be a given for the short amount of time we have done this). My internet readings are still mainly focused on entertainment and social things, and when I do read articles on CNN and the New York Time I still pick and choose what I want to read. Though what I read hasn’t really changed, I do have a greater appreciation for longer written out articles. Instead of simply skimming these I now try to read the entire thing getting the entire picture. I would like to also add that I do believe my style of writing has changed a slight bit. I say this because I feel like my writing is now a little bit more aggressive. To readers of my blogs, you all might not agree. However, I personally believe that I now can express my feelings a lot better. One thing I would have wished for is for more interaction from readers with our blogs. Getting small comments is nice but it would have been better if there was more of a conversational based response to the blogs.
Either way I believe that this blogging assignment has been a lot of fun and very good for me. I just wish that I would be able to remember the fact that these blogs are due at 11 am…. a day before the actual class.

YAY our generation doesn't suck at writing

Upon reading Clive Thompsons article on the revival on literacy, I feel much better about how technology is affecting my generation’s style of writing and reading. From other articles we can see that many people have the opinion that the internet and texting has cause us to lose a sense of formality and that we no longer have any want to write. However, we can see that this is completely opposite by Stanford’s study on college writing. Through this study professor Lunsford noticed that we actually were writing a great deal more compared to before. The reason for this is because of how we socialize online and the fact that we now no longer have to wait to write a letter every three weeks. Another thing that was pointed out in the article that I find quite surprising is the fact that there is not a lot of texting speak in academic papers. Though her study might conclude this, I would argue that this is very biased in the sense that if you looked at a regular person’s writing (not college academic papers) then you might find a lot more text speak. Either way the fact that my generation is writing more than before is still a triumphant win for technology and my generation.

It only goes downhill from here

Over the past few years, our society’s outlook on the news has significantly changed. This is apparent through the sale drops of many leading news sources such as USA today, San Francisco Chronicles, and Miami Herald. But what has caused a downfall to these companies that used to rack in millions of dollars? Could it be our recession or maybe that many of us want to go eco and stop cutting trees down? Or could it be the possibility that we simply don’t care about the news anymore.
The average American spends forty five reading the New York Times. However, when reading the New York Times online the average reader spends only a mere seven minutes. Seven minutes is barely anytime at all when it comes to reading. I do believe that this shows how our society views news. We view news as if it is something that we pick and choose to read, not getting the full thing but instead getting only either the headlines or sports. But does this really have a significant role in the downfall of the news industry?
The news industry has fallen because our apathy towards real news, such as what is going on in other countries or towards the articles that make we as readers think further and past the print. Our society wants blips of news here and there and we want our entertainment. We now no longer have any desire to read long dragged out articles on healthcare but instead we want the abridged version. With this attitude, much of our news will turn to rubbish (in my opinion).
The worst part about all of this is probably how it has affected journalist around the world. Since our news is being controlled by the corporations that only care to make money (nothing wrong with being a company like this I’m just stating the fact), we no longer get news that might not be so popular but still very important (an example of this would be how there has been no publicity of water powered cars). Either way our view on the news drastically affects many people.

Hey! Americans aren't stupid take that back.

Are we as American a literate country or are we a country full of illiterate unintelligent stupid Americans? Literacy is very important in our world and is also very important that a majority of a country is literate. But what is the definition of literacy? The definition from Princeton of literacy is “the ability to read and write”. I myself find this very true; however, Chris Hedges seems to have a very different view of what literacy is. Chris’s view on literacy seems to me to be more of a how many books do you read? I myself highly disagree with this argument. Why do I say that? I say this because I myself have not read a book in probably a year, but does this make me illiterate?
Chris seems to judge a person on whether he or she is literate based on if they make good or bad decisions. Bashing people for getting into mortgage trouble, voting based on how charismatic a person is, and on whether we eat fast food or not. I have a hard time trying to wrap my mind around what Chris is trying to say right now. Is it that the reason why so many Americans get themselves into financial problems because they’re illiterate? Is the fast food industry largest consumer the illiterate? I believe that Chris is over exaggerating the fact that America is illiterate. Yes there are people that get into trouble with credit cards and mortgages because they don’t read the fine print, but is that because they’re illiterate or is this because they simply don’t read it. What I would like to ask Chris is where he got all of his data concerning America with we are literate or how many books we have purchased. All of his information seems like it came from a highly unreliable source. To give Chris credit I do believe our presidents are dumbing themselves down for the elections but at the same time it would make more sense someone campaigning to do this. The attention span of many has dropped and we as Americans can no longer pay attention (Carr would also agree with this) and with this who would want to listen to someone who explains how he’s going to do something. Instead Americans want answers and only answers.
Though I highly disagree with many of Chris’s opinions I do see some truth in it. We as Americans seem to be living in the fast paced world and now instead of having an elaborate story, we want the cut and dry part. In my opinion aside from the fact that we have a short attention span I can’t see anyone that would have any opinions that would agree with Chris.

Internet = Stupidity?

Is the internet really making us stupid? There’s simply no way that the internet is making us stupid, I mean think about it with all the information at our fingertip that statement would be completely absurd. That’s what I thought before reading this article. However, Nicholas Carr has somehow convinced me that the internet is truly dumbing me down.
Nicholas shows us a very good observation in his article. The fact that a majority of us (readers) are finding it a lot harder to read papers online that are longer than three pages already shows that we have a short attention span and that we either can’t focus on the paper or mainly that we don’t want to translate what we are reading. As Nicholas has said “We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains” (3) this shows that reading does not come naturally (in the sense that it doesn’t take work) but reading actually racks our brain to work. With reading information on the internet we want just the bits and pieces that go to our answer, not the long drawn out paragraph. By wanting this we are not exercising our brains anymore and now can no longer easily translate long papers and essays. We can see that we are reading shorter and shorter things through a majority of the sites that we most commonly visit. Some of these examples include CNN, Google, and other various sites. When we visit these sites we are generally reading headings, or 3 paragraph articles, basically everything that is very short. By doing so, I feel like our brains our no longer making new brain connections, which in turn is causing us to be dumb.
Not only are we affected by what we read, but also by how we read. This is said in the sense that we now no longer have a strong desire to remember what we have read. Before writing on paper or on the internet was large, people had to remember everything that was told to them (stories and information). Now, however, we have the luxury of simply saying “let me look that up real fast”. When we say stuff like that we may have some desire to remember what we have read but not a strong enough one that puts it deep into our mind.
Saying that the internet makes us stupid may seem like an overstatement but it really is true. If we do not change our reading habits and how we use the internet I believe that our brains will deteriorate even further into nothing. Reading longer articles may seem pointless compared to reading key points, but without all of the fillers we would lose a lot of the details that we deem “unimportant”.

What difference?

In the Works of Joseph Harris we can clearly see a major distinction between his styles of writing, compared to Andrew Sullivan’s. We can see that there are several similarities and differences between the two. Luckily one of the main things that I noticed in Harris’s book is that he wants writing to be as easy as daily sport or conversation and is something that is simply done with a breeze. Since blogging is already really easy, Harris wants us to be able to write more formal pieces at ease so in that way it is part of our daily lives. Though writing papers should be done a lot more there would be a difference in how it would be done. When writing a paper the audience doesn’t directly respond to you but instead to the teachers and the classmates. However, we see that this is not the same with blogging. In blogging there are obviously immediate responses to the piece and with these responses the reader can be influenced and swayed. Harris on the other hand doesn’t want us to be swayed by the writer and instead keep to our own thoughts. Through this I notice that blogging and writing, writers are both slightly influenced by the readers. For papers there is influence by the readers in the sense that the writer will go out and get a general idea of what everyone thinks of the writer’s paper as is slowly progresses. Blogging on the other hand may change day after day as the writer reads the comments that are left by his readers. My take on blogging is that is still a lot more relaxed compared to other styles of writing, even though there are many similarities. The reason why I say this is because its just blogging and its still completely different.

The never ending need for information

When you look at a demographic of which age group surfs the web the most, you most likely will see students that are in their late teens early 20’s online the most. It seems like our generation has been sucked into the need to constantly have information on anything. Some older people ask “What do you waste all your time online doing?” The number one answer to that question probably would be “Checking Facebook Out”, by this we are finding what all our other friends are doing, how they feel, and catching up with all our older friends. After looking through some logs of online activities you will notice that Facebook is generally the first thing to be looked at while online or the one site that almost everyone visits. It seems to me that our generation has been sucked into keeping in contact with our old friends by taking one second out of our time to click “LIKE” instead of legitimately catching up with them and talking to them. Though this is good for keeping in contact with a large number of old friends, I feel like for some of us that Facebook is the ONLY way of keeping in touch with old friends.
One thing that I noticed about our internet activities is that many of us also have a source of news that we have to always have. For many, CNN and ESPN are sites where we can get out daily news but we could correlate this to people reading the newspaper and magazines. Informational websites that tell us what is going on in the world IS the new way of getting information on the world. Before it used to be reading the newspaper or a magazine, then it turned to the TV, but now with the internet at the tip of our hands we constantly read our news at our leisure wherever and whenever we want to.
Though many of us have our addictions for the internet, there are still a wide variety on how we are addicted. I say this in the sense that though we have the same need for information, many of us has a need for different type of information. An example of this can be seen by comparing my internet log to any other persons. My log would mainly consist of sites like spikedhumor and youtube, while other students mainly are on sites such as CNN and Newyorktimes. The difference in this is in the fact that we all have different interest in types of news. For me I prefer random videos that show average day people around the world showing off amazing videos of any findings. Comparatively, many other students prefer to get their news from professional writers or filmers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with how we surf the web, there simply is a noticeable difference in what type of information we crave for.
As you can see there are similarities and differences in our web surfing. However, general consensus is that a majority of us are addicted to the internet.

My Log

Saturday Sept 5
4:26 Pm Logged onto Facebook
Read friend’s statuses and posted comments
4:38 Spikedhumor.com
Read random humorous and serious news articles that don’t hit the main pages
4:43 Wikipidia
Searched how a rail gun worked because there spiked had something on it
4:50 CNN
Read up on current events mainly in the technology section
5:14 Facebook
Read more comments and wrote on friends walls
5:22 Spikedhumor
Watched daily videos.

Sunday Sept 6
8:34 Facebook
Checked friends status and chatted with friends
8:46 Spikedhumor
Watched videos and read all the news articles
9:27 Ebay
Looked for everything I wanted…..
10:46 Facebook
Got back online to figure out if there were fun things going on that night
10:54 FML
Had about 10 minutes to kill before I had to leave so I wasted some time here

Monday
4:35 Addictinggames
I got really bored so I decided to play some games to kill time.
5:12 Spikedhumor
The games don’t seem to hold my interest so I decide to watch some videos.
5:35 CNN
I missed reading out on CNN the day before, so I decided to catch up.
5:40 Hulu
News got really boring really fast, so I decided to go watch some T.V online.
7:15 Mitsubishi
Looked on an online forum to see what was wrong with my car.
7:24 Amazon
Checked to see how much certain books cost.

Tuesday
6:35 Mozio
I got online to check if my important documents were still being stored online.
6:53 Pandora
Added some stations and browsed around.
7:00 Spikedhumor
Wanted to see if there was any weird news

Blogging, what's the point?

Why does Andrew Sullivan blog? Why do even regular people like you and me blog? People blog because blogging has its own unique different style and form when compared to other forms of writing. Though many people think that blogging is a lot easier compared to journalistic pre-thought forms of writing, it really isn’t. Blogging opens the writer to immediate scrutiny the second the post goes online. In journalism, the writer will submit their writing to the editor, from where the editor will be the main audience and judge of the paper. However, as Andrew Sullivan has said, if the readers are lost then the blog will stop and die thus the readers must be semi-pleased. From this you see that there is a necessity to please a wide range of readers, compared to journalism where their papers can be aimed towards a certain group of people, not only pleasing readers but also interesting them and hopefully getting them to challenge the writer. Andrew Sullivan has also noted that he likes blogging because it gives you a true insight to their opinion before it changes after obtaining more information. Other forms of writing takes time to be published and even before published the writing will go through many revisions as information on a subject is learned. However, for blogging, post must be submitted now and not later which in turn takes away time for the writer to change his opinion on something. In a sense blogging is like a diary. It allows a writer to freely open up to the world about how they feel about a certain subject. Finally I believe certain people blog so that they can see how they have changed over time. Like I previously said, blogs are the true colors of the blogger. Thus over time a blogger can read all their old blog postings and see how their opinions of something have changed over time. Blogging for some is a profession that they go into, while for others (perhaps you and I) is just something we do to put out our thoughts to the world.