Is Literature Dying in This Digital Age?

      With the booming development of technology, more progressively people rely on the Internet in their daily lives. In spite of searching useful information, we are just becoming accustomed to browsing innumerable information mindlessly and apathetically. Whether literature is facing damage in this digital age has been a topic of public interest and concern.

Some critics and writers state that literature is confronting an unprecedented crisis, due to the encroachment of digital technology. Chris Hedges claims that the digital age contributes to more people becoming illiterates. Based on research represented in his article “America the Illiterate”, he said “a third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book(Hedges).”     

According to this situation, First, They declare that the poetic and humanistic spirit are facing a serious landslide at the moment of the collision of the Internet and literature, because now many people cannot even calm down to read a novel for just an hour. In addition, they also claim that the easy accessibility of Internet, the varying educational backgrounds of Internet user and the chaotic circumstance of the society collectively contribute to the disordered levels of works, which further lowers the quality of literature and has a destructive impact on the contemporary literary development. Finally, concerning the circumstance of literature, they argue that the Internet may convert to an ideal place for some people randomly spread rumors towards the public due to its loose and inefficient supervisory mechanism. What’s worse, some writers even want to become successfully overnight through the Internet by posting a large number of dirty information online deliberately.

Admittedly, all the statements above are reasonable, so is literature dying in this digital age? I don’t think it is. From my perspective, we cannot simply judge the influence of digital technology in literature by looking at one aspect. The Internet may be a hotbed of trite articles, but it also can be a cradle for some marvelous masterpieces, especially when literary forms, creative atmosphere and efficiency are taken into account.

       First, compared to the literary forms before, people have created various vivid writing styles to illustrate their opinions now in using advanced technology. Owing to the limitation of technology, there are fewer ways for ancient people to write, and they must comply with the rules of form rigidly. For example, ancient Chinese hade to used knives to letter on bamboo chips in classical Chinese characters to make verses, ditties, odes and songs thousands of years ago. Because it was hard for them to record in that way, they created a form for poetry just using twenty-eight Chinese characters separated in four sentences in a poem, and people cannot even have one more letter in that style. However, today people can write whatever they want by sitting in front of a screen, typing on a small keyboard. For example, blog is a new form of literature that appeared in the past several years. In the article “Why I Blog”, Sullivan said

When blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism (Sullivan).

         The Internet can also combine animation, sound in the articles, which cannot be accomplished by traditional literature forms. For instance, millions of people have joined Blog, and they post different information to share with their friends every day. Many youths like to write journals or articles on blogs, accompanied with some photos that they take to attract others to read their experiences and write comments. In this digital age, literature has evolved to a hypertext multimedia language, and the combination of animation, sound and words greatly enriches literary expression. This is a revolutionary transmission of literature, because this new pattern immensely increases the expressive force of persuasion, expands the restriction of written words and enriches the means of literature performance.

 Secondly, the advanced technology provides an active writing atmosphere by stimulateing people’s ardour to be writers and creating a series of new languages. As a tremendous open media, the Internet neither sets a limited entrance for educational degree, nor has a rigid criticism for someone’s art talent. It generously embraces different levels of various kinds of writers. And everyone can freely use their words to lyricize and narrate their own stories regardless of politics, region and other external factors. In contemporary society, literature is no longer concerned as works written by some famous journalists and writers, but containing some new artistic forms for people to express their own thoughts and emotions in many different ways. With billions of users browsing webs online, everyone in different levels can find some specific fans that interested in his/her works, which leads to a sense of identity in his/her mind and encourage him/her to continue writing. This identity highly stimulates Internet writers’ literature enthusiasm, triggering a new round boom of literature. Besides, as the cheapest media for people to “publish” their own words and beliefs to for public, Internet also gives literature lovers unprecedented impulses to write more works online, which increases the possibility of becoming a writer in this new age. In this open creative atmosphere, literature not only gets the extraordinary transmission range and velocity, but also breaks the formalist traditional supervision before publishing.

   In addition, the Internet refreshes the contemporary literature by creating some new kinds of languages. In recent few years in China, digital language is becoming more and more popular on the Internet based on its Chinese pronunciation. For example, “5201314” means I love you forever, and “88” implies bye-bye. And through combining punctuation symbols together, people can create many funny faces expressing various kinds of emotional expressions. For instance, by simply putting two arrows and an underline together, we have a face like this “→_→” Because these languages are vigorous, humorous and innovative, the new generation is willing to use them in communication to show their distinct characteristics. New languages have been accepted by the society and become a part of culture in this new age. Literature is the art of language, and language is created in our daily life, not made by linguists. Though the new languages have a huge impact on traditional language, they do inject some fresh ingredients into the contemporary literature.

 Thirdly, the Internet is an unbelievable database shared by people all over the world, and it also provides us a lot of new topics for writing. It is much more convenient for people getting the preference resources though the search engines. In his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr said,

For more than a decade now, I have been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes with the Google.(Carr)

We can type and share down our thoughts after reading blogs, arguing with the authors. Some people who are interested in one specific social issue get together to analyze it. Numerous books are transferred into electronic version saved in the database, and we can read them whenever we want by connecting to the Internet. As readers, we prefer to do this rather than take some heavy books with us. In addition, the e-book is much cheaper than hardcovers. And the updating rate of information on the Internet is much faster than the traditional media. We are more willing to rely on some latest information or research data posted online by experts than go back into a library to find and read a book published several years ago.

  In conclusion, the technology entirely changes the transmission mode of literature, the reading habits of people as well as expression ways of authors. However, it does not have a negative influence on the essence elements of literature such as emotion and conscience. Most people still want to read professional and deep articles just as their ancestors did before, and they have not changed the standards of judging works. In other words, the digital technology does not contribute to the dying of literature nowadays. On the contrary, it brings a new vitality and vigor into the contemporary literary world, greatly enriched the contemporary literary performance means. And referring to its new literary forms, open creative atmosphere and plentiful recourses accessibility today, literature is going through a revolution in this digital age.

Works Cited

Andrew Sullivan. "WHY I BLOG." The Atlantic Monthly 302.4 (2008): 106. Print.

Chris Hedges. America the Illiterate. Nov 10, 2008

    <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/>

Nicholas Carr. Is Google Making Us Stupid?. The Atlantic.com, 2008. Print.

After I Blogging

The first unit of this course is about to end, and I have a total new experience about my English writing. As an international student, I never write some articles online shared by others. And to be honest, I am a little nervous about my blogging at first, because I think I may misunderstand the author’s ideas, and my writing is actually not very well. The most challenging part for me is the first time I blogged, because when I sat in front of the computer, I just did not know what to write. However, after several times blogging, I think that I am becoming much more comfortable to blog now, which surprises me a lot. I am really interested in sharing opinions with Americans, because I am curious about the various thoughts from different cultural backgrounds. And it is much more convenient for me to know others’ opinions based on the same article by simply going through their posts.

What's more, when I wanted to post a blog, I had to thought about the issue carefully and I also need to come up with my own opinions about it instead of just summarying the content. I wanted to show my classmates my thoughts about the issue and my understanding about the author's opinion and get their feedback. For example, when I read Harris' rewriting, there are some place that I could not understand, so I thought about it and then wrote them down in my blog posts. This process really focus me to clam down to think about it.

I think my habit will change a lot after this blogging experience. Initially, I do not like to write any comment after I read some articles online, for the reason that it seems strange for me to write opinions reviewed by someone else I don’t know. However, I am willing to do now. What’s more, by reviewing blogs online, I find that people blog because they want share something happened around them or their opinions with others. I can feel a mother blogger’s happiness by seeing the picture in the blog about her son. And as a new literature form in this digital age, blog is very popular now, and I will blog more in the future.

Different Opinions about the New Literature

Different people have different opinions about the literature. Hedges claim that there are more illiterates in this new age, and he think that the literature is facing an unprecedented destroy now. However, from my perspective, we cannot simply judge the influence of the digital technology in literature by looking at one aspect.

In the article “Literacy in Three Metaphors” Scriber told about Adaption in the first metaphor of literacy. And I agree with this idea. Compared to the literature in hundreds of years ago, the literature today is entirely different. For example, there are numerous literature heritages passed down in China, and ancient Chinese use knives to letter on bamboo chips in classical Chinese characters to make verses, ditties, odes and songs in thousands of years ago. They tried to narrate their ideas and emotions by using as few words as possible, because it is hard for they to record in that way and the bamboo chips are very heavy to carry. In that kind of literature, several single words can represent a lot of things. However, the invention of paper changes all of that and until now, people can write whatever they want by sitting in front of a screen, typing on a small keyboard. Nowadays, literature is on longer a definition of writing words on the paper, not contains a larger content.

Furthermore, in “Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast”, Andrea Lunsford also points out that nowadays, college students show a variety of writing styles based on the nearly 15,000 pieces of student writing essays collected by her team at Stanford these years (Lunsford 1). The new styles represent the fact that people have expanded their understanding of literature owing to their different demands in the society now, and the advanced technology can help people realize their diverse purposes in writing. So college students prefer to use different styles of writing, since they have different purposes.

Concerns In the Now Age

Everyone cannot deny that nowadays, the world develops in an unbelievable rapid speed. And after the Industrial Revolution, people became aware of the powerful strength of science and technology, and the prosperity of Japan’s economy proved it once again. These facts lead People to believe that they have to get need education. Only if they have some valuable skills to make money, they can survive, or they would be ruthless obsoleted by the society. So people now focus on how to manipulate machines, to become more efficient and competitive. Technology seems omnipotent in people’s minds now.

As the opinion presented by Nicholas Carr in his paper “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”，Internet provide him an extremely incredible life, and like a godsend, he can quickly got the telltale fact or pithy quote he was after by a few Google search instead of sitting all the day round in a library doing some reading. However, does that way of learning more helpful than the conditional one in every aspect? Many people do question about it including Carr, because they find out that their capacity of reading is descending. They cannot calm down to reading something anymore. Even though, Carr talk about some historical technical developments and their significant influences, many famous researches indicate that people feel more comfortable to study and take note through their pens instead of using computers. 

All of these concerns are explored in Chris Hedges’ article “America the Illiterate”. He pointed out that a large amount of Americans do not want to read books since they graduate from school and go to work. With the advanced media resources, people rely more on the images and want to have entertainment instead of calming down to do some readings. People care about different things as time changes. However, from my perspective, we cannot define some people are illiterate simply due to their unwillingness to do academic reading. Not all the people are writers. The guy learns computer science don't need to take the clarity of spirits into account in their daily life. They may care about news, the innovation of products, which can be accessed through the Internet. And That's enough.

Class Question: The Definition of Reading and Writing

I think the can be explained as following:

Reading: 
a way for people to get the valuable information from books. People use different ways to understand the meaning of author. After reading, people learn something from the article, and may have some own thoughts about the text.

Writing: 
an action that people present their thoughts and ideas through opens. Human consciously use the language and words to record information, express intention.

Rewriting

In the Introduction and the first chapter “come to terms”, Joseph Harris tells people how to motivate myself to read an article with purpose, how to get valuable information to handle an academic essay by their own, and how to come to terms to rewrite through their own words.

Writers always come up with some feelings, some thoughts that want to be published to people when they are trying to write something. However, projects are usually far more complex than aims. People also pay attention to the methods and materials. And just the same as rewriting, when you reading the text, you need to involve in the world created by the author, thinking the ways they presented, and understanding the emotions expressed through the words.

In Harris' book Rewriting he writes “To come to terms with a complex text you need to be able to shifts levels in his way, to ground how you define the project of a writer by citing key passages from his or her text”(Harris 19). So I think the most common thing for people to figure out when they are reading is how do passage stand out for them, or what valuable information they can get after reading this complex article. And regarded as a core of whole passage, I also agree that understanding some keywords or passages before rewriting is the most important thing to do for readers.

As Harris said, people cannot judge the author’s thought simply by the two words, right or wrong. Referring to the text “Why I Blog” written by Sullivan, he also argues that writing cannot be set to either side. He wants to blog because blog gives him everything he wants in the writing. He finds his value in it, and then becomes addicted to blogging. So from his perspective, Blog is a kind of literature revolution in this digital age. It is a cluster of perspectives presented by writers. They have words to say, so they say it loudly through their pens, books or even the Internet nowadays. Writers need to get though sufferings to have their own deep perception and thoughts and to write them down, so does the rewriting..

The Articles People Need...

After I read Andrew Sullivan’s article, I think I can understand why blog is so important in writers’ life. Firstly, blog can guide people to think about the life, society and all the things around them. Just as he said, it likes radar when we travel on the road. It also record important things happen and some private thoughts; however, it is different with a private journal, for the reason that blogs can be read by everyone. People write comments after they read blog or even argue with the author. No one can get rid of challenging in such a literature. So, every time people calm down and write a blog, they actually have a heart impact during that time. Life is a surfing, and it is a total explosion. Writers have sensitive hearts, and as Andrew said, it is a kind of revolution when he firstly posted a blog online, and have millions of people read it. However, after that, writers got addicted to it, and from my perspective, it is not just a feeling of being paid attention to but also a sense of being approved.   

He states some experiences in his "Blog Life". For instance, in the past several years, he went though many things with his readers in his blog page, such as the 911, which push him to think more about humanity, politics and other debatable topics. He also mentioned that an unsmooth blog road is very smooth makes him have a deeper version of the society. Fortunately, unlike the newspaper articles being revised several times by different people, blogs represent the original emotions and thoughts from the authors. And I think people really need this kind of articles now! 

What's more, compared to the literary forms before, people have created various vivid writing styles to illustrate their opinions now in using advanced technology. And today people can write whatever they want by sitting in front of a screen, typing on a small keyboard. As is a new form of literature that appeared in the past several years, Sullivan realized how important the Blog is for journalists. So he writes that it generates a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy (Sullivan). That's why Sullivan wants blog.

The Blog From My Perspective

People in the United States have more freedom in China, so we can post whatever we thing online. And as an international student in DU, it is fantastic to create a blog in this class and have discussions with my classmates online. The process of creating a blog is easy. As I have already had a Gmail account, I just follow the step to log in and create a new blog for this writing course.

Form my perspective, it seems that everyone are willing to declare themselves’ opinions on the Internet now because of its free environments. In China, many famous people, especially some economists, journalist and critics, do deliver their opinions toward the social issues and some popular affairs happened recently. And I like to read their blogs when I was in China, for the reason that they give me various directions to think about the issues and the analyses that they had are really attractive.

However, since a whole article needed in one blog and the faster society rhythm, many people do not have enough time to calm down to write something. So, Facebook appears and becomes more and more popular around the world. And in China, many people shift to use "micro-blog" instead of posting blogs. These two websites are alike, in which people tell what they think in just one or two sentence, share some interesting pictures, videos and some information that they thing others need to know. Facebook is a production to adapt the change of people’s social life, but it is not a good way people to represent their thought entirely. In addition, it is not good for students to promote writing ability. By considering the difference between blogging and writing, I am kind of agree with the opinion that these two things are similar. Maybe writing is just more formal than blogging, because when people write essays, they think more about the word choice, the structure and grammar. However, nowadays, many people do writing on the Blog instead of publishing their articles in various magazines, so that more people are access to their essays. And they opinions about different things can be delivered to anywhere in the world in just one second. So blog is a new kind of literary for with in this new age.