Clive Thompson on the New LIteracy

In this article, Clive Thompson addresses one of the most discussed topics in our generation and that is about technology, in the form of the internet, leading to an age of illiteracy. Clive Thompson believes that this is not so and he uses a study by Andrea Lunsford a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University to dismiss this claim and to express his own viewpoints.
Andrea Lunsford organized a study where she closely examined the writing of college students from 2001-2006. For her study she collected 14,672 student writing samples from formal essays, in class assignments to email and blog entries. After her study she said and I quote, "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," end quote. She believes that technology is not negatively affecting the way one writes but it is breathing a new life into the way one read and writes. The first thing she discovered was that young people today write far more than the generation before. I totally agree with this. From the time we wake up to the time we go to bed , we are constantly texting .With the likes of Facebook, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and other online texting services ,texting has transform into a huge phenomenon.
Thompson says that for students writing is about persuading, organizing, and debating. I definitely agree with this. Many times when we are talking to our friends, discussions and topics tend to arise that everyone doesn’t agree on and as such it allows for individuals to provide their own point of view. Whether it is about how cute a guy is or about the privilege position of business within the American Society in history, debate often arises among our peers or among a group of people. As such individuals always aim to present their point of view in the best way possible so as to convince others to take their side or to agree with them.
The author, Clive Thompson also believes that the idea that texting in short with the use of abbreviation such as LOL and the use of slangs and smiley may taint the seriousness of academic writing is a myth. He talks about the fact that in the Lunsford study of the works of first year students that it was found that there wasn’t any use of slangs or abbreviation that one would have used in a text on their academic papers. I believe that we as students know when to write formal and when to write informal. My Professor, Professor Schwartz, made mention the other day in class that it was very rear for him to see a student write a piece containing words that they would have used in a text. We as young people know the distinction and we know the difference. Just as we will not talk to our Professors as we would talk to our peers, we know the difference in writing to our friends from writing for school projects.
Thompson also believes that “online media are pushing literacy into a cool direction” where young people can write long complex pieces while working with others. He made mention of 15,000- word video game walkthroughs. He ends by saying and I quote "We think of writing as either good or bad. What today's young people know is that knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might be the most crucial factor of all".emd quote.


I definitely agree with this as young people we tend to distinguish between what is important and what is not as well as what is serious from what is for mere entertainment. When it comes to our schoolwork we know that we should be serious in what we write and do as oppose to when we are texting our friends.