On the New Literacy - Darci Peterson

In his essay, Clive Thompson brings to recognition that the new technologies many say are destroying out literacy are infact doing something completly different. He borrows from Andrea Lunsford, organizer of the project Stanford Study of Writing, and engages the idea that there is a new literacy from today's technology.
Many people today are text messaging on their cell phones, updating their social websites such as myspace and facebook, blogging, and going into chat rooms. Before these things existed, there was a lot less writing done. Lunsford says that before the internet, American did not write out of school unless their job required it as a duty. This means, that even though many who are unfamiliar with this new literacy do not think highly of it, it has kept people literate for they are always reading or writing something, at least much more than before.
A lot of times students will end the school year in June and enjoy the sun until September. The things taught throughout the year slowly leave the mind as one does not use the information. Any subject works this way. It is common for math and science concepts, as well as others depending on the person, to need a refresher at the beginning of a new school year. Well, in the case of writing, Americans use it so often that skills have the opportunity to build anytime. It is to our benefit that this is available, aside from entertainment purposes.
Lunsford's project found that in any kind of writing a student used in school, the bad habits the unfamiliar dislike are not influencing the writing in the essays, journals, and in-class writes. This means that the lazy styles we love can live on without destroying our literacy. If we write well in school and we write more often in ways to entertain ourselves, it should not matter how we write when it is for personal enjoyment.
As someone who uses the new technologies, I can agree that if these were not available that I would not be writing. Creativity and the desires to write to different audiences expressing ideas that we want are what drive this. People are unique and they want to be. Fortunatly, the art of writing and filling this need is helping us stay literate and good at what we do. Thompson says that, "knowing who you're writing or and why you're writing might be the most impotant factor of all," (Par. 7) meaning that if you know how to get the point across to your audience, that the author can do what really matters in writing.
Although it is great that we are coming to a new literacy and that people are writing now more than ever, we need to be sure that we are not lacking in other departments. In order to write something well thought out and knowledgeable, one must have the knowledge or wisdom to do so. The technolgies make it harder to gain that wisdom however keep us literate. One must find a way to balance out the two. nowing how to write does not do the job if one does not have the knowledge to write about.