An Era of Change
I wrote this essay to inform people of my age what technology is doing to our generation. I specifically focus on the Internet and how it is changing our reading and writing habits. I present both sides of the issue, giving personal anecdotes and factual evidence to help my audience relate to the issues.
Today, there are more people using the Internet than at anytime in its brief history. We have entered a new area of endless digital knowledge and instant gratification. Any question can be answered in a matter of seconds and social communication is as simple as typing words on a keyboard. The Internet, in some respects, is becoming a gateway or a portal into an entirely different world where efficiency and immediacy are commonplace. As our time spent on the Internet increases, aspects of our society are starting to change and sometimes mimic the way we interact with the Internet. Books and newspapers are disappearing and are being replaced with Smartphones and laptops. Why carry a book around when you can carry a lighter and much more useful Ipad? Why would you pick up a USA Today newspaper from a bookstore when you can look at the headlines from CNN, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal in less than three minutes on your computer?
Is this change necessarily good for us? It is becoming apparent to many that it is altering the way we read and write which is presenting great controversy.
I think that a little over half the reading I do every day is done over the Internet. As I am writing this paper, I have an Internet browser open with several of my sources. From Facebook to checking my grades online, the Internet is consuming several aspects of my life. However, I find the wealth of information that is available online is extremely useful. I feel as though everything I do online is benefiting the way I do things making life more efficient and easier.
The Internet today is forcing users like me to be much more active in reading and writing. Whether we are online shopping or responding to a comment on Facebook, we are forced to think and react in an efficient manner, just as the Internet does (Farrell, 2006). Rand Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University, says the way that books are structured does not necessarily correlate with real life situations. The net, on the other hand, can be more useful in real life situations, as Spiro points out: “That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters.”(Rich, 2008)
As aforementioned, the Internet is changing the way we think. Our minds are being programmed to become active and efficient, only selecting important information to process. A study conducted by Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University suggests that our excessive Internet use is causing a, “literacy revolution” (Thompson, 2009). In the study, she collected thousands of pieces of writing from college students, from text messages to formal essays. Lunsford found that young adults today are writing much more than previous generations of young people. This high exposer to writing through many different mediums is proving to be an advantage to these students. Today, students are almost always writing to a specific audience. Because of this, they are able to easily identify their audience and adjust their writing technique to best convey their point (Thompson, 2009).
This new generation of active, efficient, and intelligent authors is giving birth to a new medium of writing that allows for creative expression and deep personal thought. The Blog is becoming a popular way in which young people express their thoughts and opinions and the rate at which people are using it is growing exponentially.
For the first time at the beginning of this year, I created and began using a blog for my college writing class. Immediately I gained this sense of freedom from blogging; I was no longer bound by the strict guidelines set by a teacher as I was essentially allowed to express my opinion whenever I wished. However, this freedom was very intimidating. I struggled at first, not knowing what to type as I was afraid of the negative scrutiny that I could receive. Presenting my personal beliefs to any user on the web was scary and something I was initially not too fond of. But as time went on and as I continued to read blogs from other students in my class, I started to become comfortable with the idea. It allowed me to gain different perspectives from classmates and it also showed me how many of us thought along the same lines. From this experience, I discovered an evolution in my own reading and writing habits. Freed from any sort of structure, I felt more active reading my classmates blogs and more inspired to write my own.
Andrew Sullivan, one of the web’s most well known bloggers, wrote an article called Why I Blog, in which he answered the title within the text. Sullivan has a similar feeling to blogging that I do. He compares it to taking a narcotic, calling it, “intoxicatingly free”(Sullivan, 2008). The fact that a blogger can instantly reach any reader fascinates Sullivan. There are no editors or bosses that his writing must go in order to be approved, the only people he has to answer to are his readers. Although this provides massive amounts of freedom, it is also a risk the blogger must take. Because blogging is more of a broadcast rather than a publication, criticism of that piece of writing can be a lot more hurtful because the writing will contain more opinionated and subjective matter (Sullivan, 2008). Sullivan’s article confirms my belief that our literacy habits are changing. The blog is just another creative outlet that the Internet has created as a result of a shift in our reading and writing tendencies.
Spawned from efficiency and instant gratification, the Internet is beginning to make fundamental changes to our reading and writing habits. Active and efficient reading is promoted by the sporadic and diverse nature of the Internet. Social media is causing college students to write more and, as a result, demonstrate their audience awareness through their academic papers. And the creation of the blog is an example of how our reading and writing habits are being changed because of the Internet. Are we in the midst of a “literacy revolution” as Lunsford puts it? Or are we leading ourselves down a path of no return; where deep thinking will soon be a thing of the past?
Although these instances demonstrate the positive influences that the Net can have on our brains and society, these same examples can be viewed as detrimental. It is an increasing concern among some scientists and writers that greater Internet media use is leading to poor reading and writing habits.
Many of those people who believe in this side of the debate argue that the instant gratification and efficiency promoted by the Internet is actually causing us to process information like the Internet, “scatter[ing] our attention and diffuse[ing] our concentration” (Carr, 2008). I can say with certainty that there have been many instances where I have been reading and then suddenly realize that I have just read two or three paragraphs without registering what I just read. Nicholas Carr identifies the same example saying that he now finds it difficult to read longer pieces of text in “Is Google Making Us Stupid”. Carr also notes how social media and Internet use are phasing out “deep reading”, which in turn is phasing out deep thinking. As our brains become more mechanical alongside the Internet, so will our thought process (Carr, 2008). Ken Pugh, a cognitive neuroscientist at Yale says, “Reading a book, and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without doubt, than the short little bits that you might get if you’re into the 30-second digital mode.” (Rich, 2008)
By slowly eliminating our deep thinking, the Internet may also be hindering our ability to make educated and well thought out decisions. Hedges points out a startling study conducted by The Princeton Review in “America the Illiterate” that really shows the problem of low-level thinking. The study reviewed presidential debate transcripts and indicated the minimum educational standard needed for a reader to grasp the debate. The results showed that political rhetoric is becoming increasingly easier for the public to understand. Lincoln and Douglas had scores that indicated that they spoke at a 12th grade level whereas Bush and Gore had scores that indicated that they spoke at around a 7th grade level (Hedges, 2008). Hedges also notes how political propaganda today must have an, “emotional appeal,” to its audience, often using pathos instead of hard facts and logical reasoning to persuade voters. Is this partially the result of social media and Internet use? Is our society more influenced by appearance than logic?
In some respects, I believe that this Internet obsessed era is leading us this way. People are not looking to find deeper meaning in their Internet use. Everything must happen fast and as soon as possible. There is no more time anymore to stop and smell roses, only time to look at them as you walk by. Our quest for knowledge and efficiency is eliminating our thoughtful reasoning that we have developed since the advent of books.
What might happen to upcoming generations who will spend their entire life’s using and interacting with the Internet? Are they at risk of having minds that are too efficient to process deep information, or are they redefining what reading and writing should be? Will the Ipad force the traditional newspaper out of popular culture? I cannot say for sure what I believe. However I think it is crucial for our generation and generations that follow to understand what is at stake here: Reading and writing habits will change forever. What are our solutions? I’m not sure of this either, but we can start by recognizing the argument.
Works Cited
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" TheAtlantic.com. July 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/>.
Farrell, Maureen. "How The Internet Saved Literacy - Forbes.com." Forbes.com. 1 Dec. 06. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/reading-literacy-internet-tech-media_cx_mf_books06_1201literacy.html>.
Hedges, Chris. "America the Illiterate." TruthDig.com. 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/>.
Rich, Motoko. "The Future of Reading - Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading? - Series - NYTimes.com." The New York Times. 27 July 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all>.
Sullivan, Andrew. "Why I Blog - Magazine - The Atlantic." TheAtlantic.com. Nov. 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog>.
Thompson, Clive. "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy." Wired.com. 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson>.
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