Clive Thompson(JESSE C)

Jesse Conroy
English 100/O

Clive Thompson’s article, Clive Thompson on the New Literacy sheds light on the new generation and how they are writing. Students today have many technologies available to them that previous generations did not. Facebook, texting, email are all examples of these technologies. Such technology is used to communicate on a social basis. Students are writing every day, socializing on Facebook and emails. According to Thompson, “The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing.” Thompson seems to be suggesting that when students use these technological tools, they are most commonly using them for communicating with some kind of audience. Whether it be friends, family or work the students know why they are writing and so their writing has purpose and this translates into good writing in other areas as well. Thompson goes on to say, “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.”
This issue is important because technology is here to stay. Present students along with future ones will be using technology to communicate with each other for a very long time. If students adapt their writing from these forms of communication into an academic form they will be more likely to know why they are writing and who they are writing to. Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University did a study called the Stanford Study of Writing. She found that current students use Kairos, which is a writing technique used to assess your intended audience. I can only assume that most students today would obtain this skill through their daily emails and Facebook posts. They are writing in a tone intended for the audience they are communicating with. Since technology will not be leaving anytime soon I think students should be encouraged to adapt the writing skills they acquire from using Facebook and texting into their academic writings. Lunsford states, “I think we are in the midst of a literary revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” Thompson goes on to say, “For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. Its reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.” According to Thompson, current and future students could use technology to push literacy in a new direction. I agree with Thompson and further more believe that technology can help us all become better academic writers. Every time we use these forms of communication such as face book and texting we are focusing our writing to a certain person or group of people. If we can focus on our academic writing and understand to who we are writing and why we are writing it we will be able to explain ourselves better and ultimately become better writers in the long run.