As we read in the first paragraphs of Bolters’ first
chapter of Writing Space
Computers, Hypertext, and the
Remediation of Print, the
priest in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, 1482 was distraught in thinking
that the invention of the printing press would not only destroy the church, but
human thought. When we read this, we must be reminded that the world was
in a completely different time period with very different ways of living when
the priest was freaking out. Humans were in a different mindset/consciousness.
Humans were making more history than discovering it, but now we are able to
reflect upon our history and learn from it.
Now, when we face the dilemma of going from paper to
digitalized media, it does not seem as urgent of a matter. Both times of change
are seen as civilization advancing in technology, but this time of change is
not as dramatic. Our society is now used to a lot of new advances in technology
because there have been various new items invented. For example, when a new
iPhone comes out, people only care about having the latest gadget, not
necessarily what’s new about it. We are so used to new technology appearing
that seeing media go from print to screen is not unpredicted.
Alas, there are still some people out there who are concerned
with the idea of print being overthrown by digital media. Sometimes I think
people forget to take into account the population of this world and the
differences we all have. There will always be people who prefer a book to an
e-reader. And if there comes a day when there are absolutely no paper books or
sources in this world, we will be long gone and the world will have changed so
much that we cannot predict what our response will be. Therefore, instead of
guessing and fretting about this “issue” we should realize that print isn’t
going to just disappear. Instead, we should focus our energy on refining the
technology that we currently do possess now.
Where’s the authorship when things are written on the
Internet, whether it be via a social media site or professional website? When
we talk about plagiarism in class the consequences are usually failing the
class and possibly worse. However, on the Internet, when someone uses another
person’s words, there really isn’t a format for citing them. Therefore, it is
easy to plagiarize on the Internet and people do it a lot. This is not okay for
people to be able to easily steal another’s words. Also, some think that the Internet helps create or influences students to plagiarize. Here is a link to a journal article from Education Leadership on how plagiarism relates to this generation: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Plagiarism-in-the-Internet-Age.aspx
This makes me question, should there be new
lines/definitions categorizing writing to encompass social media and various
digital networks? For example, should there be a new essay called the “Blog
Essay” or the “Status Essay”. Okay, those aren’t very creative names, but I
hope you get the point. Also, is the digital media creating more writers? If
so, I think there’s less true readers. Therefore, there is an abundance of
writing, but not enough critical and participatory readers. So, what do you
think? What are your answers to these questions?
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