From Pencils to Pixels

The gateway to literacy is a computer. I agree. Many people can read textbooks online now. Because of the constant used of technology today, most people do not write the way they used to. They may even have trouble with writing. Their process of writing is like trying to figure out how to use a new version of a phone or other real technological devices. A pencil is a technology. Without the pencil, we may not have half of the texts we have today. The pencil was before the pen and ultimately the start of any technological advances we have. Plato disliked writing because he thought it would weaken our memories. Thoreau is one of the greatest writers of the American Renaissance. He took a pencil with him to record his thoughts in his 12 day excursion into the woods. The telephone shaped communication technology by causing less face to face contact. It combined new ways of speaking and writing situations. This much like the affect writing had on communication. Technology has made fraudulent computer text easier to compose and promulgate across the bandwidth. Baron's conclusion is trying to say that if you let a simple minded being work with a computer long enough, you'll get the story, just not the scholarly one. This article defines literacy as a constantly advancing way in which the world is changing, including writing and technology.

Writing in the 21st Century

Developing new models of writing, developing a new curriculum supporting those models, and creating models for teaching that curriculum. Choose to write in spite of cultures that have devalued writing, in spite of prohibitions against it when we were female or a person of color, in spite of the fact that we were told we should read but that we weren't ready to compose. Yancey's main argument is that we need to join the style of the 21st Century. Science and progressivism has cause reading to get more cultural respect than writing. Reading produces the feelings of whatever may be in the text. Writing produces feelings of frustration because of all the labor and editing of ideas that comes with it. Process writing is an approach that emphasizes working through various stages of the process; from brainstorming to the final product. Self sponsored writing is a writing that belongs to the writer, not an institution. People have the freedom and ability to write almost anything they want to. Literacy is constantly changing and growing and can be viewed in  many different ways with many different meanings. The so what of this article is that in today's world, the way we write has changed but that is not a bad thing. We are able to see more clearly what we have been missing.

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Thompson's main argument is that social media has helped people connect in a multitude of ways. He is also argues that these ways of connection may be more helpful and convenient than they ever have been. Zuckerberg introduced the News Feed to make keeping up with your Facebook friends easier. Everyone's post was in one place and kept the user from having to go to each individual page to keep up with their friends most recent social post. This doesn't say much about our ability to find information, it just makes it a lot easier than it used to be. In my opinion, the News Feed is a good thing  in terms of literacy. It allows one to keep up with more people at the same time and allows them to actually read more than they might have if the News Feed never existed. Ambient awareness is described as being able to feel personally close to or connected to someone purely through their social media account. I sometimes experience ambient awareness. Facebook's paradox is Twitter. I believe there is a downfall and benefit of ambient awareness. The benefit, not having to talk about sore subjects with your friends because they put all of the story online. The downfall, you lose that personal face to face contact with the people you say you care about. The skimmable updates are basically what we have been talking about the entire time in class. They are made to feed our desire for short, yet informational posts.The ties to our online friends hurt us. This article defines literacy as being able to stay connected with people you barely know and still be more than informed about their life.

Gin, Television, and the Cognitive Surplus

This article is about the time spent watching television and how so much time to do such an activity was allowed. There has been a build up of this type of activity for over 50 years. Shirky is arguing that there is too much time to sit and watch TV and that humans don't know how to spend that time wisely.We focus to much on sitcoms and other types of shows. The article says that literacy is sitting in front of the TV and trying to understand that perspective. It differs from the other 2 articles by addressing a different type of technology. The other two address the Internet, not television. The cognitive surplus is an asset. It is allowing has to have more time for independence and relaxation. This article matters because it addresses an issue that has been around for years. It may not even be an issue if you think about it. Being able to watch TV is a luxury. Many personal stories and examples of certain activities are in the article. The personal stories help the reader to better understand where they author is coming from and how easy it is to relate.