Response to Reading

It is quite apparent that over the many years of human communication, there has been a great shift from oral to written forms of it. As we have learned in our history classes, oral culture has been passed down from generation to generation. However traditional this may be, things become altered during the transition process. In writing, things are much more permanent and can be easily documented for many generations to come without being altered in any way.

I found it very interesting that Elbow thought speech was more automatic than writing was. He claimed that writing took more of an "effort." For me I believe that to be very true, but for others I am not so sure. I am positive that there are people that cannot express their thoughts and feelings orally, but express them quite eloquently in writing.

When I am writing in a journal of some kind, even though a journal is a place to keep your deepest, darkest secrets, I don't write everything that I'm feeling. Even in my journal, I need to make sure that I am not being too cruel to others, etc. Whereas in speech, I can say many things that I feel at the time even if they are hurtful. I think that writing is much more inhibited than speech just because it takes a longer thought process to form words on a page than orally.

An interesting point was also made about how spoken word cannot be erased. There is no white-out for verbal communication. However, unless there are many witnesses, it is hard to truly believe the "he said, she said."

Class Post for Discussion

What superstitions or strong beliefs do you have about writing and writing technologies?

This brings me back to my earlier post when I stated that I believe that perhaps the art of writing will be extinct in years to come. I believe it is so important to try and continue writing even in the midst of this technological age. Writing individualizes us. It's an art that cannot be duplicated. Well, it can, but that's due to forgery.

I've heard in reports that we can tell what kind of person we are by the way each individual letter is formed in our writing. If we were to lose that, it would be very unfortunate.

New writing technologies such as keyboards and texting on cell phones are very helpful, but I would not want to see them completely take over. It would be so odd to never see a spiral notebook or an ink pen in the stores anymore.

I understand that children of this day-in-age need to know from a very early age how to operate a computer in order to do schoolwork, but can you imagine not having those silly writing projects from elementary school with the juvenile handwriting? This is a part of childhood and fond memories that would likely be lost in the new age of digital text. It would be very difficult to see the individual in a digitalized form.

I guess my biggest problem with losing the art of handwriting is the fear of losing the self behind the pen.

Response to "From Pencils to Pixels"

After reading Dennis Baron’s “From Pencils to Pixels”, I was made quite aware of how much I take technology for granted. We may think, “How was it possible for people to live without this and that?” I believe the better question for us to think about is, “Do we really need our computers and cell phones to ‘survive’?” The obvious answer should be, “No.” but rarely do we think that way. We think of how much of a hassle it would be without these objects of communication rather than truly appreciating the ease of the tasks done with our new technology.

When Baron was explaining how handwriting a short memo was “constricting” and “overwhelming”, I could easily relate to that. I am pretty confident that most of my generation has never written a full paper by hand. If so, I believe them to be out of the norm. When will handwriting become a lost technology, like that of the vinyl records and beta tapes, even VHS tapes? I don’t think that I will ever see the day when handwriting becomes obsolete, but I am confident that pencils and pens will become a rarity in years to come. Perhaps these “old technologies” such as pens and pencils will only be used to formally sign paperwork, but nothing else.

I thought that it was very perceptive of Baron to say that we adapt our lives to the technology that surrounds us. This is entirely true. Think of the vernacular that has been created from technology.

“I’ll Google it.”

“We’re Facebook friends.” Meaning that you are not really his/her friend, merely an acquaintance.

It is quite obvious that technology affects our vocabulary and the way we think. The whole point of technology, at least what I have come to learn about it, is to make the user’s life easier. Some people believe that technology has made people lazy, which is probably true.

How many people handwrite letters anymore? Not many. Why waste time writing a letter, finding an envelope for it, and then going out to purchase a stamp, when you can get the same task done by quickly typing up what you want to say and clicking send?

It also amazes me how impersonal communication has become. I can’t imagine a day-in-age when people thought that talking on the telephone was not at all personal. To me, that is second-best to talking to a person face-to-face. By easing the forms of writing, does it in turn remove personality from the communication?

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