Clive Thompson

    In his recent work, Clive Thompson suggest that technology is getting today’s society smarter. He wrote about how John Sutherland, a college professor from the University of London, complained about how writers are becoming lazier with there work. He says that the access of PowerPoint, Facebook, texting and video games are taking place of brilliant and original handmade essays. On the opposing side of the subject, Thompson went to Andrea Lunsford, a professor at Stanford University, for a different opinion. Andrea did many studies from 2001-2006 to notice that the nation is coming close to a literacy revolution. Her view is that all the exposure of writing like face book, texting, and ad ifenitum ad hauseam(and so on and so on), has showed that people are writing more than ever now a days. Lunsford explains that before the day of technology, people were only writing if they had to for school assignments and letter writing. Other than rare occasions, people did not write. Today, everyone with the opportunity of a computer or a cell phone writes more than any other time has before. Lunsford also elaborates how having the technology helps people have a audience to write for. When any form of writing gets put online, it is now public and any one can see it. This helps the writers be able to write more freely without thinking twice because they’re already used to people reading there work.
        Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that Andrea Lunsford’s swing on the subject makes more sense. He shows this by writing way more about her outlook. Doing that showed that he obviously took more time to find the evidence of the topic. By having Thompson write almost 7 times more about Lunsford than Sutherland is a clear indication on what side he leaned towards. Another way Thompson hinted at Lunsford side is that when he was talking about Sutherlands side he made his opinion sound like a complaint because he stated that he moaned about the problems writers have today. If Thompson would of wanted to hint towards Sutherlands side, he wouldn’t of used a negative word.
        My own view is that the technology is making the generation of writers be better than the previous times. As a society the advancements of electronics had made us have to adjust and learn more ways to make life easier to cope with. Though I concede that having all the technology has made myself get lazy at times, I still maintain that all the technology is making me more knowledgeable. For example, if I needed information, the easiest thing to do is go on the internet and look up my information. If I didn’t have a computer it would be much more time consuming for me. Also, by having the electronics I do today, I have to learn how to use them which overall makes me smarter. Although some might object that this generation of writers is becoming lazy, I reply that I am increasing my abilities more than the past generations. This issue is important because it demonstrates how the world is not going through a literature downfall, but a literature revolution because of the advancements in today’s society.