Fellow students, adolescents, young adults, kids of the up and coming technological era…This message is for you. We need to ignite a change in one another, in future generations, and in those who have already been negatively affected by the mindlessness we suffer as internet users.
While it is true that there are numerous benefits to using the internet in a school setting, and as a resource for education, we have also seen many detrimental effects in our country’s children. The internet itself is not the problem I wish to address, but the ways in which we are using the web. The amount of time that kids and even adults are spending on the computer has increased tremendously as we continue to make more technological advances such as “smart phones” and wireless internet in public places.
While Lunsford’s study conducted at Stanford argues that the ways in which we are using the web may in fact be increasing literacy among students, I cannot help but disagree (Thompson). I think students still have the skills required to write academic papers and to perform well in a school setting but that doesn’t mean that our errors, improper grammar, and use of vocabulary are not decreasing. I think the institutions we are evaluating makes the difference in the types of students we are evaluating. There are many generalizations that can be made about the way students are using the internet today for example, as our class pointed out, most of the time spent is “mindless” or “wasted” on social network sites or other sites for entertainment purposes. But in my opinion the use of the internet is on an individual basis. Each person uses the web for different reasons, different amounts of time, and draws different things from each online experience. Younger kids may very well spend the majority of their time on game sites such as “miniclip.com” or “nickjr.com”, while older kids visit facebook, stumbleupon, or other entertainment sites such as tumblr. Adults or older students often also throw some news and educational sites into the mix.
I do not believe that the use of internet and new and upcoming technologies cause literacy or illiteracy. The articles we drew on in class discussions focused primarily on the way that the internet makes people less intelligent and literate and what a negative impact the web has had on students educations. I believe that it is each individual’s responsibility to separate their school writing and reading and their internet writing and reading. Most students should know not to type “u” instead of “you” in a paper for school. Each student should put their personal success on their own shoulders and make sure they are writing differently for academic purposes than they are on social networking sites.
When it comes to reading I do believe that the internet is having an impact in different ways but again, it comes down to each individual to not let this have negative effects. I personally have a harder time reading academic articles on the computer but I’ve learned to either print them off or highlight in Word. Just because something is put out in electronic form doesn’t mean that’s how you have to absorb it. Each person reads and writes differently and you have to learn your personal learning style and adapt to make things work for you.
While most of our articles in class discussed literacy I feel the biggest issue due to the increase in internet use is the lack of communication, and miscommunication we’ve created in our generation. Even in older generations. Some of the illiteracy issues may stem from the issue of miscommunication or misplaced communication. Many people can no longer communicate well with others in person. People often send emails in “text” speak even to those who require a professional email. The way we communicate the information we read on the internet has also changed, there is more and more ownership of ideas that others have put out there.
While this class has opened my eyes to the way we interact with the internet and the information it gives us and we share through the web, many do not realize how the internet effects their everyday lives. I try to take precautions with the way I use the internet. I am definitely a Facebook junkie, as are most, but I do not let shorthand find its way into my academic writings.
I also know how to write to certain audiences. I think that is one benefit of our generations excessive computer use. We have learned that certain things are, and must remain, situational. I email, text, and Facebook post to my friends, some family, and strangers (blogs, site comments, etc) casually. However, if I am emailing a teacher or even posting a comment on a former teachers Facebook I make sure to remain somewhat professional no matter what the relationship may be. This is one of the observations made in the Lunsford study, that by being more active on different kinds of websites, students today are learning how to write articles, journals, papers, etc, tailored toward certain individuals or even towards groups.
I can see how the technological advances were making can “scare” some, in truth, I am not a complete fan of the way and rate in which we are advancing. What happened to ten year olds playing outside after school instead of getting on the computer? Since when did a twelve year old need an iPhone? Kids aren’t kids anymore. It’s quite terrifying that my twelve year old brother has a twitter when you think about it. Those young kids are the ones who will be most directly affected by the advances we are making. By the time I used the computer to AIM friends, or had a phone to text (fourteen with five hundred a month), I had established good writing skills, knew the difference between what a teacher wants to read, “What are you up to?”, and what my friends want to read, “wat u up 2?” (yes at some point typing like an uneducated monkey was “cool”).
I do not agree with everything the Carr and Hedges articles we discussed in class are trying to say. But I do understand the caution they wish to practice. Just because I do not see literacy as a big issue now as a result of computer time, does not mean I do not think it will become one. In time with more and more advances, and more young kids spending their time online before they’ve developed the knowledge they need to separate their internet experiences from real life, our literacy rate will decrease. I predict our graduation rates will decrease, and the quality level of school work as well will decrease. I don’t think teachers are prepared to teach their students in such a different capacity, especially for our younger students (fourteen and younger).
When one google’s the definition of “child”, exactly my point by the way I didn’t seek out a printed dictionary I just used a search engine, one can read that a child is between birth and puberty, they are immature, and are the product of an influence or environment. Now, think about the things you see on the internet sometimes, even just on Facebook. No doubt there are plenty of things that children who are immature and easily influenced should not see or read, yet society is changing so that it is acceptable for these young children to be exposed to such things.
By the time kids are our age and in college they should have the knowledge to be able to read and write in different settings through different medias. College kids are more than aware how things are changing and most of us welcome it (unless of course you have younger siblings as I do), because it opens the door to all different types of knowledge complied into one place, our computers or phones. However, I also know not to site many websites as sources, I understand that everything online is not reliable, I realize that I can’t use “text speak” in a paper for a college level class or even when I was in high school. The reality is we learned these things through years of experience, our youth have been thrown into the vast world of technology with minimal direction, less time to learn the rights and wrongs, and less time to learn things the right way before they learn the wrong way (informality, text speak, subject discretion, age appropriate material).
So while I believe that our current college students will have minimal problems with reading and writing with some many changes occurring, I believe that in future years up and coming students will struggle with discerning between right and wrong when it comes to not only reading and writing on the internet but with using the internet safely and responsibly.
