In my generation scholarly
writing has been made possible to people of many different demographics. Nearly anybody can use the vast amount of
resources found on the internet and appear to be a far more educated and
informed person than they actually are.
Likewise, as Shane Madden discusses in his third person analysis of his
own representations, titled, "A Portfolio of Self Representations," people can
use new technologies to portray an image of themselves that they feel is
desirable for the circumstances in which they are writing. For example, in Shane Madden's personal blog,
on February 9th, he says, "Life still sucks of course but not as
much." About a month later, in an
application for a summer camp counselor, his tone is much more cheerful and positive. His tone changes, because his audience
changes. If he sounded depressed, it's
not likely that the people in charge of hiring camp counselors would consider
him a good person to supervise little kids.
However, when he is posting on his blog for his friends and peers to
read, he tends to tell his true emotions, or "cry out for help," much
more. This is just one example of the
millions of different self representations found in different writing every
day. Heres a video (Music video by Brad Paisley performing Online. (C) 2007 Sony
Music Entertainment) that
relates to what I am saying in a much more comical way.
Before I came to college, I
barely ever used the computer, compared to how much I use it now. I would check my facebook, download songs,
and occasionally write an essay for school or a college application, but until
I got here, it was just a small aspect of my life. Now, about half of my homework is online, I
send and receive multiple emails every day, I have read more articles through
online sources than I have probably read on paper throughout my whole life, and
I find myself sitting on the computer for hours at a time, doing pointless
things that aren't improving my life. It
has been quite an overwhelming experience and for a good part of the semester,
I was completely convinced that computers were a plague on the human race and
that they would eventually lead to armagedeon.
Recently, my view on technology has become a bit less dramatic. I feel like I am starting to understand the
benefits and realize the ways in which computers have positively affected my
life. I still hold the belief that the
world would be a better place had technology not been advanced to such an
extent, and had computers never been invented because of all the complications that
they cause, but the benefits in some areas, such as scholarly writing, have
been substantial.
Technology has raised the bar for
scholarly writing. Sure people can post
anything that they want on blogs or personal pages, without facing any
consequences of lacking credibility, but in scholarly writing this doesn't fly. No longer is there any excuse for producing
an uninformed article or essay because of a lack of information. It is all out there on the internet, and it's
much easier to access than it was just a few years ago. This has greatly raised expectations for scholarly
writing, especially for college students.
Throughout this past semester, I have done some of the highest quality
and most informed writing that I have ever done. However, while I was working on each essay I
was more stressed and frustrated than I have ever been. The expectation for me to be well informed
about what I was putting into my writing was very overwhelming. I feel that computers have also increased the
expectations on the quantity of writing.
Computers have proven to be a much more efficient way of writing, and
having a computer has recently become a necessity, instead of a luxury at
universities. For that reason I feel that instructors are more apt to give
assignments that require many more pages and much more research.
To
sum up, I believe that the overall standard of quality for scholarly writing
has been greatly increased as a result of computers and new technologies, but
the effect that they have had on the quality of life has been adverse. Computers have made scholarly writing much
more accessible to many different types of people, which creates much more
competition and stress for writers everywhere.
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