Dylan daugherty on Clive Thompson

In the article, “Clive Thompson on New literacy”, the author explains the new form we receive media in is actually successfully making the public better writers. He comments that most people believe that texting, online chatting, and networking sites as well as video texts, and other medias is “dumbing” down the young writers of this generation. But in truth according to Andrea Lunsford’s stanford study people are writing more now than they ever have. In the past students would almost never write anything outside of a school assignment. Now with the internet at our finger tips we can write short blurbs all day long. And sites like Livejournal or face book, and even blogs give people and students a chance to write whatever they feel like whenever they feel like it. Right now writing is at an all time high compared to the past. Andrea’s study proved that even though people use the internet and may use shorthand sometimes, students are not losing prose and voice and technique as they write. In all her academic samples not one had any kind of “internetspeak”. Not only are people writing more often and freely, they are usually writing to an audience. They know who they’re writing to, and what to say, and how to best convery their point. This is an advantage because when writing an academic paper you have to keep your audience in mind. Over all new medias are increasing literacy.

I agree with a lot of things in this article but I still believe that students should get into old literature so they can have a base understanding of older texts even if they’re out of date. Our old knowledge is valuable. Thought its true knowing your audience is valuable it’s hard to say whether or not the internet and other medias have helped to increase our literacy, or if we as a whole have been brought up with a good knowledge of writing and know the structures but the internet has increase our use of these techniques. Still his article fails to mention the importance of real experience. A great essay will be more like an in depth conversation, than quick handfuls of information. It is important to realize the use of the internet is great. But one must know where to put their boundaries.

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