Digital Media Effects On Conventional Reading and Writing Practices

“Writing isn’t just black marks on white paper. It’s full of sound, images, color,” Lunsford says.  This particular quote from "Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?" really spoke to me.  Reading is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time and I always try to imagine what the character looks like, sounds like, acts like, etc.  I pick certain characterizations about each character that I feel best represents them from the text.  Other people who read the same story may define the characters differently.  Writing is a way of expressing the way that we feel, the way that we understand and comprehend the world, the way that we see each other and ourselves.  

"At least since the invention of television, critics have warned that electronic media would destroy reading. What is different now, some literacy experts say, is that spending time on the Web, whether it is looking up something on Google or even britneyspears.org, entails some engagement with text."  I absolutely agree with these statement by Motoko Rich.  Children, teenagers, and young adults alike will always come into contact with text.  Sitting here writing this blog has given  me a chance to read an online article and then write about it.  It does not matter how the students are able to come into contact with the text as long as they are reading. I think that allowing students to Google information during class or as a research project is a good way to incorporate literacy and text.  Literacy is like velcro, nothing else can stick without it.  

As far as the continuum between Web Evangelist and Traditionalist is concerned, I would consider myself somewhere in the middle.  I do believe that some digital media can be harmful to our youth but a lot of it can be beneficial if used appropriately.  According to Andrea Abernethy Lunsford, "Writing always changes given the context.  It molds itself to the changes."  I do agree with this statement because writing has been ever changing for many, many years.  We are writing differently than our parents and they are writing differently than their parents and so on.  Our future children will be using digital media to read and to write.  But with that being said, what is going to happen to the children who cannot read or write in cursive?  What about the children who struggle to even write their names because they don't have to use pencil and paper anymore.  "Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision." This is a quote by Motoko Rich explaining that alphabet print is different from digital print.  I like that children can read a book and create their own image of the character instead of having it all laid out for them on the Internet.  The future is clear; digital media will take over traditional print. I just hope that the digital media will be used for the benefit of the students. 

"Ever Changing"

I chose this visual metaphor because the leaves are ever changing, much like the ways that we go about reading and writing.  Reading and writing change with the times and molds itself with the changes.  

References:
"Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers? | Spotlight On Digital Media And Learning". Spotlight.macfound.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 June 2016.

Rich, M. (2008, July 26). Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? Retrieved May 28, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all