Today in class we were all assigned to write up our online identity assignments. To my surprise, performing this task was difficult for me. Yes, I write to take notes and put down assignments in my planner, but other than that I type most of the time. I honestly don't remember the last time I wrote that much with a pen and paper. It was so bad my hand started to cramp up. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one in the class that had difficulty. I feel that today was a great example of how technology has changed us.
Growing up, I was taught to write. At home we had a typewriter. By the time I made it to Kindergarten, the classroom had both typewriters and computers. From first grade on, I've been using computers. The big difference is that back then I would write my papers out as a rough draft, and then type them up on the computer. Now since almost every household has access to a computer, in addition to me having my own laptop, I never actually write my papers. I type them. The only ink that ever touches the paper is from a cartridge, not a pen.
Of course this is changed in other areas too. People rarely actually write letters. If they snail mail letters they are usually typed, and in other cases people just send an email, which is typed. People are more likely to blog like I am right now instead of keeping a physical journal or diary.
In school I was taught to write in cursive because supposedly by the time I got to college that would be the standard, but the standard now is for typed submissions, not even just for essays but for assignments as well. In some cases the work handed in isn't even physical, we're simply asked to upload our files to "Safe Assign" or "Turn it in."
It blows my mind to see how much technology has changed since we've been here. I'm 21 and I feel that the changes have been drastic. I couldn't imagine physically writing out 5 page assignments like our final paper for this course.
Maybe it's just me.
I find it hard to write sometimes because if I could type my work up it is easier to spell check and review what I wrote. I also find it easier to format my ideas. When writing, you can't go back and put a whole paragraph in a different spot. It's also hard to erase mass amounts of things. I think that technology improved this but in a way, we should be able to organize our ideas as well on paper as on the computer.
ReplyDeleteI also remember that when I was learning cursive, all of my teachers insisted that I would need to use it to write all of my future assignments. In their defense, the PC was still in its earlier stages at the time and the teachers themselves had grown up without home computers. I don't think most people at the time would have imagined college life where nearly every students has not only a personal computer, but a portable one.
ReplyDeleteI also find it difficult to write with a pen and a paper because with computers, we are able to write out whatever is on our mind and go back and edit the sentence we just wrote out to make it more accurate to what we want to say. I also feel that chatting online has somewhat influenced the way we talk to people in real life.
ReplyDeleteI remember how adamant teachers were about having to write in cursive and pen for every time I went into a higher level school. First it was middle school, then high school, and by college the topic of writing in cursive died out.
ReplyDeleteI think it's weird how much writing with pen and paper I do compared to a lot of people only because of the traveling time between Philly and home. Sometimes I end up writing whole papers on the train in pen and paper- but that's because, for some reason, using a laptop in a moving vehicle makes me car sick.
ReplyDeleteI think it things have changed dramatically since computer have become so accessible. I remember in elementary school we had to write everything out and rarely did school assignments on the computer or online. Everything was hand written and the computer was for finding information and playing games. I was in elementary school ten years ago which seems long ago but it blows my mind how often computers are used in elementary schools now a days.
ReplyDeleteI kind of miss the days when we all wrote pen on paper. Something about the tactile contact with the words makes it special to me. But writing on a computer also has its advantages. For me, the two forms have different functions in my mind. Computers are fine for official documents and things that have to be legible. But handwriting is a personal experience, better suited than the computer for creative writing and jotting down ideas, lyrics and poems. I'll never feel comfortable sitting down and typing things like that.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Sam. I think that writing and typing have two totally different functions in my mind. I could never write an entire formal essay by hand and, if I had to, it would probably sound awful because I'd be so overwhelmed scratching things out and trying to find the right words. Ironically, in terms of the teachers insisting on cursive writing, anything personal or important that I hand write, I always write in cursive. For example, I would find it SO weird if someone typed out their wedding vows to read at their wedding. This is something that I would most definitely hand write (and likely in cursive).
ReplyDelete