Writing in the Realm of the Future: Beneficial or Detrimental?

Think back to thirty years ago. Where were we in the writing realm of the world? Surely we were still in the habit of taking out a pen and paper, jotting down notes and writing letters to each other, experiencing the annoyance of cramped hands and messy inscriptions. And look at where we are now. Handwriting is slowly disappearing and computers have taken their place. But what does this entail? Is this change for the betterment of our society, or a slow deterioration of interpersonal communication? The Internet world is a rapidly growing community that is filled with multiple fields for interaction and exchanges through text, blogs being the most prominent and utilized tool to do so. Through Internet blogging and online interaction, writing as a whole will ultimately evolve into a faster-paced two-way means of communication; however, it will the same time deteriorate and ultimately replace the properness of acceptable writing conventions.

Blogging is often seen as a detrimental addition to the writing community, but this may not always be the case: communication between others will become faster and yield results and responses much earlier than through print text. Currently, we are still accustomed to hearing news via newspapers, radios or the television. Soon enough, people will be reporting information on the Internet, and bloggers may even take matters into their own hands and write about such events on their personal blogs. Jeff Utecht states that “blogs are not about writing, they are about a conversation.” In other words, he is telling us that the interaction between others is going to extend further than what we would read in a newspaper or other print text: blogging will be a way for people to instantly communicate back to the author, providing feedback and thus sparking a virtual conversation. And how is this invention utilized? Through comments, of course! According to Vicki Davis, commenting is “one of the most meaningful tools we have to show experts where they need to focus.” Surely this is true. When writing a print article or essay, the author does not expect immediate or informative feedback right away, while the reader most likely is mentally critiquing the text in front of them. With comments on blogs, however, this barrier is eliminated: readers can now instantly provide their afterthoughts on the author’s writing, thus showing this speedy communication process.

Of course, commenting is already occurring today. But where will this take us in the future? Ultimately, we can already see what’s coming: blogs will soon replace the idea of newspapers, magazines and books, for all of this information will go directly to the Internet rather than go through the process of dispersing print texts. Blogs will soon turn from “a chore” (mainly because of its necessity for dedication) to “a great investment of technology and time to engage with [others] directly,” as stated by Sophie Brookover. But is this increased speed of communication necessarily always a good thing? Sure, it sounds nice. But what is often ignored is the fact that both good information and bad information can quickly spread. The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool, for “when posting personal material out there in the ether for any and all […] to see and digest,” as stated by John Horgan. It has essentially become the “bathroom wall”—this new dimension in which people can gossip about anything and anyone with the option of anonymity. Regardless, both the pros and cons of blogging mentioned thus far convey the same message: communication will speedily increase and boost our means of interaction with one another.

Not only will blogging be an essential tool for faster communication and the spreading of information, it can be a method of more responsive communication within classrooms and expand even further outside of school. Currently, most classrooms are still strictly based on learning from standard textbooks and turning in paper essays. However, with blogs in our field of vision for the future, this method of learning will soon escalate and extend to students further than what print text would be able to do. Blogging can “[help] build communication and collaboration among students…[and] students’ motivation and excitement levels [will rise] dramatically,” as mentioned by Catherine Poling. And how will blogs do this? Simply put, blogs are basically journals on speed. Blogs follow the same general format as any other journal would: the author writes about whatever specific topic their blog is centered on. What’s different is the response blogs obtain. While writing in a journal is solely limited to the author and, if utilized in the classroom, to the teacher, writing in a blog would allow these entries to be viewable to the rest of the class and potentially the entire world of the Internet. This would then increase interaction between students, and because blogs are accessible both inside and outside of the classroom, this interaction can continue after the final school bells have rang. Poling goes on to say that, “as educators we hope that all children [grow] each year, which is possible via the dialogue created through a tool such as a blog.” Blogs may have a slightly negative connotation connected to it, but when thinking about it in the realm of a classroom, they can actually help increase interaction between students and further their learning outside of school.

But what about blogs that are unrelated to school? How will they affect the future in writing? While blogging may have its benefits, it does not necessarily mean it doesn’t have drawbacks; solicitation or harassment can spawn from it as well. Of course, everything has its drawbacks. We have already heard horror stories about irresponsible teenagers being exposed to sexual harassment or solicitation through the Internet. And will this continue in the future? The realistic and honest answer would have to be “yes.” Future bloggers will hopefully utilize what Jan Ray is employing on her students today, telling them to not provide any personal information online. However, we can’t all believe online harassment will end happily; with advancing blogs comes advanced harassers. Online sexual solicitors are continuing to find ways to sneak past our radars and with the increase of Internet users; it will only make it easier for these solicitors to harass teenagers in the future. A study conducted by Kimberly J. Mitchell concludes that although blogs are not extremely risky in terms of harassment, it could escalate in coming years and teenagers should proceed with their postings with caution. Regarding this field of blogs, it is hard to predict what will come in the following years. It really is dependent on how the teenagers utilize the blogs, not how the blogs themselves are constructed. Mitchell echoes what Jan Ray had to say, stating that teens will need to be wary of what they post about themselves on their blogs.

Potential predators are not the only emergences in electronic writing; the integration of informal writing and classroom writing will soon become customary for all. Electronic writing has, in a way, already become a sort of “norm” for teenagers, but what should we expect in the coming years? One can only imagine the decline in standard grammatical conventions. As of right now, most teenagers—unfortunately—type their text messages with abbreviations and typos, which is where most of their “writing” is utilized. In a press release from PEW Internet, it states that teenagers notice a large difference between their informal writing—in other words, their writing in text messages or blogs—and their formal writing—writing done for school. But is this necessarily the case? Sure, we may think there’s a distinct difference, but in all actuality, we end up integrating these two different stylized writings more than we thought. PEW goes on to validate the fact that teens actually end up incorporating their informal writing into their writing for school with percentages: 50% have used incorrect punctuation and grammar, while 38% have accidentally used shortcuts and abbreviations in formal writing.

What does this indicate? If teenagers are disregarding proper grammar conventions now, imagine what the following years will bring us. Sure, we may notice the difference between our writing on blogs or emails and our writing for essays and projects now, but as PEW stated, teenagers are becoming unaware of the incorporation of these two styles. Soon enough, this informal writing we have become adapted to will turn into the norm. In a study appropriately titled “U R What U Write,” the author brings light to the fact that the Internet has introduced this new hybrid of writing, which he calls “Netspeak.” Sure enough, the study concluded that students who wrote online frequently demonstrated a higher rate of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, while those who rarely used electronic writing displayed much more accurate and proper conventions. This should not come as a surprise to us, for electronic writing is, as mentioned before, a faster and shorter means of communication, and with that comes shorthand script as well. Teenagers have lost their will to have proper writing, and this may ultimately result in this Netspeak that the study speaks of. Hybridity may sound nice, but proper grammar will slowly disappear, which some may argue is the start to a deteriorating writing society.

So what does this all mean? Aaron Smith states that we are entering “a world in which meaning is more important than form, and where writers are judged more on the content of their arguments than on their pristine spelling.” And this is where arguments come into play. While some believe this integration of writing is just a new style we will have to get used to, others feel that proper grammar conventions need to be sustained and not get lost in the electronic writing realm. It is inevitable that this will happen; all we can do is wait and see what the future holds.

Electronic writing is, without a doubt, going to become the standard form of writing, whether we like it or not. Blogs will replace journals and diaries, while schools will utilize this new tool as a way to better communicate with students and have them interact with each other apart from the classroom setting. Benefits and drawbacks are evident in electronic writing, for the speed of communication and ability to speak to others at any time through the Internet is evenly balanced with the negativity that embodies online solicitation and harassment, let alone the disputable decline in writing conventions. Our future will be held in the Internet’s hands, and only time will tell whether or not it will be for the better or worse.