First Reading Response Post
APA Style Citation:
Yagoda, Ben. "Is the Internet Good for Writing? Part 1: Affirmative."The Chronicle
of Higher Education: Lingua Franca. October 3 2013.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/10/03/is-the-internet-good-for- writing-part-i-affirmative/.
Yagoda, Ben. "Is the Internet Good for Writing? Part 2: Negative."The
Chronicle of Higher Education: Lingua Franca. October 7 2013.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/10/07/is-the-internet-good-for- writing/
Please click on "Read More" for blog writing content.
Yagoda, Ben. "Is the Internet Good for Writing? Part 1: Affirmative."The Chronicle
of Higher Education: Lingua Franca. October 3 2013.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/10/03/is-the-internet-good-for- writing-part-i-affirmative/.
Yagoda, Ben. "Is the Internet Good for Writing? Part 2: Negative."The
Chronicle of Higher Education: Lingua Franca. October 7 2013.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/10/07/is-the-internet-good-for- writing/
Please click on "Read More" for blog writing content.
The internet in general has made a huge impact on how we read, write and communicate to each other in some good and bad ways. It has taken over our lives like reality television. I know for a fact people spend more time reading and writing on the internet than with just pen-to-paper or reading books in this new age of technology. It is something that people enjoy because it’s interactive. It gives a person the opportunity write on blogs and forums to express opinions in a virtual community where millions can view and give their opinions. People enjoy knowing others will be able to see and be able to interact on what they have said, without saying coming in contact with them face-to-face.
Social media in particular is becoming more and more like a public diary,
or a counseling session for people that need advice on life events in general.
It has made people more diverse in nature but others not so much, but it has
definitely made people have a voice on matters that they wouldn’t in person.
Social media has become a “safe-haven”for those to say whatever they want
without feeling isolated or judged.
I want to take a piece of what Clive Thompson’s statement in his book, Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better, and reiterate on the part when he says,“regularly astonished by the quality and length of expression I find online, the majority of which is done by amateurs in their spare time.” No one read or wrote so many opinions about things until the internet began. This quote especially caught my eye because I spend a lot of time on social media and I write way more on social media and have developed a “free-style writing”complex. I think that is why it is very hard for me to structure my academic
essays because, when I am on social media, I don’t have to worry about structure
and no one will grade me for words like,“b-4” (before), and short-hand writing
such as, ”omw 2 the sto,” (On my way to the store).
In contrast, Andrea Lunsford, a scholar and professor of English at Stanford
University, quotes, “We’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of
which we have not seen since Greek civilization.” (Yagoda, Ben. Is
the Internet Good for Writing? Part 1: Affirmative. blog). In other words, technology isn’t killing our ability to write, it’s actually restoring interest in writing. While it is true that we are writing and reading more but, how much of it are we actually paying attention to how we write and read over again for grammatical errors, etc? Are we sounding educated when we write, or do we just write because we have an opinion?
We all write or respond to information in different ways but are we researching
articles we read on the internet before we make an opinion. I would say 95% of
the time we are writing from personal experiences/beliefs and not intellectual
stances on situations. In this article, Gertrude Stein, an
American writer of novels explains to Hemmingway that, “Remarks are not
literature,” so this clearly shuts down the question about social media
improving writing skills. Remarks are just made free flowing and non-filtered,
as I stated above this goes with opinionated writing.
While I agree with the internet encouraging us to read more, I don’t
necessarily think that it promotes an overall good writing habit with some
social media sites such as Face book, Twitter and Instagram, because of the free
form writing environment you are in, it doesn’t promote grammatical
attention.
I understand when Thompson talks about quality of words when writing. In my
opinion, “quality” of writing changed when social media decided not have a tool
bar for paragraph formats also, they don’t ask you “Did you want to check the
spelling for errors?,” (just joking..)
However, an academic blog or website/educational, where a teacher can evaluate is one of the ways writing is good for the internet. It promotes other students to interact with your blog by them critically thinking and give ideas that will make you think outside the box. The internet can give you success in writing if used it for education.
What I’ve learned from this article was that I didn’t even think
about how much I loved to read and write now. But, I can truly say that, looking back on my posts on social media, I never have to think critically because most of
the time it’s about your interests and opinions and if it’s an article on line
that doesn’t interest me or I have no knowledge of, I don’t read it or do
research about it to learn more, I just skip it and go to something that I
already know about. This is sad but, true.
In addition, honestly, if it wasn’t for this course, and I would have come across
this article, I definitely would not be one of my interests.
Now that I have read it, this was an interesting topic that has me
thinking critically. I definitely would like to do a survey of how many people have problems writing in this new technology age then in the past before social media developed.
If you are a social media fanatic, do you see a difference in your writing style now than in the past? Has it changed or stayed the same? If so, in what ways has it changed? if not, what techniques have you helped your writing stay the same?