I still prefer to write with pens - a specific, cheap Bic kind, actually, that I can buy in black packs. Whenever I take notes in class, I prefer them to be on paper (because I have trouble paying attention if I do them on the computer), I have to write poetry on open wide pages that allow for me to cross out and scribble and generally make the paper look like a hodge-podge mess, and I love fleshing out story lines and character sketches on lined composition notebooks. I even have a typewriter that sits on my desk that I still use occasionally.
But I could not write an essay or novel long-hand to save my life. My fingers can't keep up with my thoughts unless they're on a keyboard, as they are now, and I can't imagine how the Greats (whose work we still read today) did it when they were accomplishing their great novels or collections. My words never sound fluid when I reread them from a handwritten sheet of paper, they way those authors words must of. Does that make me less of a writer?
So, though I refuse to own a nook/kindle/whatever else they'll come up with (my boyfriend and I have a bet going - if I buy something like that in the next 10 years, he gets as many roofboxes for our cars as he wants. I win, and we move to the UK), I've been tainted, in a way, by computers, and I'm almost waiting for the days when technology renders us useless without it. I'm one of those skeptics.
Which is why it's really interesting to look back and see something like this "Writing lacks such tonal cues of the human voice as pitch and stress, not to mention the physical cues that face to face communication..." (Baron, 4) and remember how Plato thought that writing was going to ruin us. Reading the above quote, my initial response was, That's not entirely true. If I know someone well enough, I hear the inflections and the tones in their voices through the writing they send to me, be it letters, emails, or texts. I know that that is also true for some other people. That evolution of thought for me would never have occurred for Plato.
Does that mean that all of our fears are ungrounded - books no longer being in print, newspaper journalists losing their jobs to machines, etc?
Even so, what makes me sad is that half of what we are doing today will never last. Outside of writing - our skyscrapers won't be here in 1000 years the way the Colosseum still is; if the internet were ever to crash, half of the information we know would be lost - and with the rate that memory loss is climbing at, how would we remember all of it?
Are we dumbing ourselves down even as we at the same time learn new ways to communicate?
I have some of the same concerns about technological advancements in writing as you do. I often fear that we have begun to focus upon forms of writing that do not have great merit or any real depth. Some excellent examples of this are Facebook posts and tweets. Some people seem unable to resist commenting about things like what they had for lunch. Such insignificant life details evoke little interest in me, and I cannot imagine that they will have any value in the long term. Posts and tweets are also often plagued with a number of grammatical and language errors. I wonder if such forms of writing are having a negative effect on peoples' abilities to compose what I see as more interesting and powerful texts. In short, are we dumbing ourselves down?
ReplyDeleteClive Thompson would likely disagree with the scorn I heap upon the world of social media. After all, he thinks social media promotes long-form contemplations. I do not disregard this possibility, and I think some writers effectively utilize technology to advance discussions of significant and interesting ideas. Posts and tweets may serve as springboards for ideas. However, very few people I am in contact with via social media have every written anything online which exceeded the length of about one page. So, has the state of writing deteriorated since the internet has provided a broader forum for online users? Should we attempt to regulate online writing somehow? Should we stand aside and let technological advances take us where they may? To be honest, I do not think we have much of a choice. We must adjust to technological advances or be left behind.
I don't think that we are dumbing things down. And I don't think that our information will necessarily be lost. I just don't know. I guess we'll find out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there is some merit to the pen. Oftentimes when I am at a loss, I switch from my computer to a pen and notepad. There is something different about the way it feels and the permanence of it. I also refuse to use pencils. I hate how they feel, the scratch of the graphite on the page, and the fact that it smears, smudges, and erases. But that's just me. But, that just goes to show that everything is merely a tool. You can choose to use it or you can choose not to. The technology we have today is only a tool. For me, technology can be incredibly useful some days, and others I just want to throw my computer into a lake. I think that some people will find it more useful than others. Some people may misuse it. I don't think that we are dumbing things down or ruining communication or that writing is becoming lost. I think it is merely changing, just as it has since the beginning of humanity. As writers, we can pick or choose which tools we want to use. Technology has only created more tools. Yes, in some ways communication is changing, but society is changing. The change is inevitable. We must learn to adapt.
I second your opinion on iPads, Kindles, and their ilk. But honestly, I still can't help but feel optimistic about the "interrelatedness" of writing and the technology, largely because the eBook format (as well as the internet in general) offers so many possibilities to indie artists and writers. The publication industry seems to be undergoing an upheaval of sorts, as more and more authors and agents seek alternative (and often electronic) routes to traditional publishing.
ReplyDeleteThis would make one think that the stigma attached to self-publishing will disappear. Yet this trend has also resulted in an influx of truly abominable eBooks vended via the internet. I suppose one has to take the good along with the bad...