Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

In this article, Clive Thompson brings up the idea that technology is to blame for the students’ inability to write properly, formally and intelligently. While this can be some people’s take on it, research done by Andrea Lunsford proves that technology is not to blame but instead, technology is simply creating new ways of writing. In other words, instead of limiting our writing abilities, it works on expanding our writing abilities. She supports this idea by mentioning the fact that young people today are writing more than any previous generation. This is due to the writing that is involved in technology and online, for example, texting, facebook, twitter, AIM etc.
Before the wide-spread use of the internet, people did not write much on their own. If they weren’t writing for school assignments, they weren’t writing at all. Technology has given a new interest to people because they are writing for a reason. In general, when there is a targeted audience to generate the form of writing, people are more enthused to write. When people express their own ideas and bring their own personality into writing, they are tempted to just keep writing.
It is essential to continue to teach formal writing however it is also important to realize that technology is not working against this formal way of writing. It is working with it, by encouraging more ways of writing and expanding different types of thinking.