Writing In the 21st Century

New models of writing, different curriculum, and inventing models to teach are three challenges of writing in the 21st century. Writing has faced challenges such as gender issues, race troubles, and teaching differences. Yancey's main argument is that technology in the 21st century is increasing literacy through multiple ways. Writing can be viewed as just expressing feelings when reading is learning and becoming more knowledgable. reading produces feelings of new information and creation of new ideas. The negative associations of writing are that people to not think about what they are writing and just express their feelings. Some say their is no real importance in writing because there is no real importance behind it. Process writing is studying and learning how writing works and how it effects the readers. Self- sponsored writing is better know as writing for fun or one's own personal use. For example, a blog or Facebook post is for the writer to vent and share their personal trials. The 21st century is the age of composition because we write how we feel and create our own stories rather than just reading others. The so what is that writing and reading are literacy and are used by us to share our stories and rather than just reading other stories. Yancey defines literacy in this article is being able to not just read bur write our own stories with technology.

Pencils to Pixels

The gateway to literacy in this article refers to the computer and technology. This is true but it is not always a good thing because it causes grammar and reading issues today. Writing is a technology because we have to create an answer with points and evidence that all support our main cause. Although we currently view technology as cell phones, computers, or tablets, pencils are still a means of technology. A pencil is utilized to create a work of art, or better known as a book or paper. Plato warned that writing would cause us not to remember or be able to recall the information learned. According to the article the written word is good because it practices literacy but does not allow people to communicate or converse about the issues addressed. Then, the spoken word is good because it allows people to talk about issues among one another but does neglects literacy. Thoreau was against technology that was created to help people write so he solely allowed pencils. he understood the advancements in writing but believed the pencil was the only writing tool he needed. Telephones shaped technology because it was the first time people had the immediate access to any one on a daily basis. This is similar to the writing the enology because things were becoming east and quick. We no longer had to be patient and write a letter, we could just talk on the telephone. Technology has become a personal advantage. For example, it was created to improve the workforce but now we use computers and such for our personal pleasure. This particular article defines technology as keeping up with technology and becoming apart of it.

Digital Intimacy

Thompson's main argument for the article is that with the help of social media sites our lives are becoming more public with every status and picture we post. Zuckerburg created a new update for Facebook that changed the news feed. The news feed changed to be an easier view. Each user's friends are displayed on one easy screen in a quick fashion. The update says that our attention span is short and very brief. In terms of literacy the news feed is bad because it allows to see every one in a fast speed without having to search for any information at all. This article defines ambient awareness as knowing about someone with actually knowing them. For example, through Facebook we can see every aspect of one's life without every talking to them personally. Ambient awareness helps us because we do not have to waste time focusing on the small stuff. It also hurts our relationships because we know more about people without catching up with anyone. The media is making everything 'skimmable' so this is decreasing literacy. We are getting used to skimming over information that we forget how to actually research and read thoroughly. The weak ties spread our emotions thin and make it difficult to manage many friendships at one time. The 20 year olds feel the need to keep up with social media to stay in touch with old friends and check to see what people say about them. This article defines literacy as keeping up with social media. It is being able to read posts and statuses and understand the user's personalities and moods.

Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus

This article is about how we as a human race currently have been wasting countless hours watching t.v. and on the computer when we could be doing more productive things with our time. Shirky is making the argument that we are wasting our time doing meaningless things when we could be spending time making a difference in the world. This articles matters because it addresses the idea problem in the world today that we are too caught up in television and technology that we forget about the other things we need to fix and solve.