Robert G. Brown's view on"Clive Thompson on the New Literacy"

Clive Thompson in his published article"Clive Thompson on the New Literacy" introduces two
viewpoints representing the writing and literacy level of todays culture; incorporating the use of
Hi-Tech medium. The main debate seems to center around whether or not this technology is
helping or hindering our cultures ability to write. Clive Thompson seems to suggest that the audience that the writer feels that they're writing too constitutes their style of writing as opposed to the older days when writers wrote essays and didn't take into account of the audience that they were writing to; they just picked a topic and style and hoped that the reader would appreciate their work. Well, it doesn't work that way anymore. A shift has occurred and it is suspected that the use of technology has brought this about. He feels that writing today is more a matter of persuasion, debate, and organizing than anything else. I tend to agree. I remember when I was growing up and learning to read and write, that there seemed to be more of an emphasis placed on being gramatically correct and making sure that your spelling and punctuation was correct than there was to focusing on a writing "style" and trying to envision an audience to convey your thoughts to; but since I started incorporating the use of technology into my writing it has challenged me in ways that I was never challenged in before and one way was in the internalization of my audience. Thank you computer! Clive Thompson's article also is written in a style so as a broad range of people could comprehend the message as opposed to Birkert's style which incorporates so much sophistication that only narrow range of people can comprehend the message and that at best would require at least two readings. Anyway, keep up the good work Clive and I'll be looking forward to your next article; whatever that may be on.