Blog 1

In Richard Lanham' article; "The Electronic word,Democracy,Technology and the Arts", I learned how to make the connection between what we think of as traditional text or writing and the new age version of steering away from what is the new way of writing on computers. I am old school in the sense that I like to physically print pages out to hold them as I read, but I have struggled to get adapt to technology.
The generation after mine are considered to be very tech savvy and they certainly are, I see them and they never appear to look up from their phones and computers, But that is the changing world right? Out with the old and in with the new. So hence I have to learn quick! Lanham expressing such ideas and concerns "that technology isn't leading us in these new directions". I disagree greatly with this because we are being forced in many ways to conform to the ever changing world of technology, smart phones, laptops, HD Television's and it changes every six months. As soon as you spend hundreds of dollars buying the "latest" phone something new comes along and quickly takes it's place. "It is the computer as fulfillment of social thought that requires explanation", perhaps this is somewhat true, but I tend to think that it is probably a little social and more technical. Maybe it is art imitating life to some degree, movies like Minority report show technology that we have never seen before, was it all just special effects? Which even that has come along way because of technology with a social push and need for something with a wow factor added.
Lanham purposes great text about how far we have come and how many are still struggling with all this ever changing world and social standards of technology, he writes;"Digital expression , in such a context, becomes not a revolutionary technology but a conservative one". But is not a race to the top and have the technology that so many other countries are so far behind in developing? Neeedless to say, it is indeed fascinating what not only our smartphones can do with a touch of a button or the sound of your voice but on a bigger scale better technology for our armed forces to combat whatever danger we are facing and where it will all take us is beyond my imagination but also exciting to watch happen and hopefully learn a little about it and not be to scared of it as well. Lanham also makes a good point about going back and to the original Western thinking about reading which was a back bone for education thousands of years ago , so I guess in many ways he is explaining that the civilization then had to learn the new ways of writing and reading, perhaps it was moving from symbols to actual words and alphabets for them, whereas for us we are moving from paper to computer and I guess the lesson here is change and how to go with. Thousands of years ago those changes were to advance society and so there is a common link here, these new text changes and the new forms of technology are also to advance our society as well.
After reading "Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriters tale" By Jim Porter, Mr. Porter really takes the reader on journey of our increasing use of computers and writing has evolved. Mr. Porter in many ways is speaking of a certain age group and the old school ways of writing and how we have adapted to this way of writing. I can honestly say I relate greatly for I am one of the many that fall into the age group of learning these new ways of basically having to do all of my writing and a great deal of reading on the computer. Although many of the principles have simply migrated over there are some new ways of writing that pertains to these machines. I can see that the process may be longer and shorter at the same time, the constant scroll up and down and the great spell check that helps many of us use to get our writing of email, essays and blogs. It's very interesting to take a look on how your writing process has changed if at all. Some of us just view as the way it's now done, but I think for others it is indeed a look back to how far we come and possibly the joy of not have to write with a pen or pencil any longer. Like everything else sometimes it is nice to take a look back and see how you have progressed with the way we now do things. Change is always going to loom before us and it's a matter of changing with it or waiting to the last possible minute to learn the new way of doing anything. "Technology does indeed matter in writing (Porter,J 2003), and Mr.Porter really helped me get it! And why it it helps us in our ability to write and understanding the premise of how to do so. I think that it's not the technology so much as it is just a new form of expression, we post on social media websites, blogs and write for both joy and work. Whatever the reason that this is the way it is now and is much more excepted that it was fifteen years ago is a changing of the times that so much of what we do in our daily lives is based on the technology that we are surrounded by all of the time. I can't even begin to imagine what technology will become over the next ten years, the possibilities are endless, everything from banking, cars,television, phones and computers. What could actually change for the better, we will all have robots in our homes? Who knows for sure but it will be something great to experience.