The Evolution of Writing

I've done more than my fair share of reading about cognitive psychology and the effect new media has on the creation and transmission of messages. However, this article makes almost no sense to me. I get that the medium one uses to convey a message affects the message itself. I've read about that in Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky. Shirky conveys concepts that are equally as complex as those presented in "The Evolution of Writing" but he finds a way to break such concepts down so that they are understandable to the reader. "The Evolution of Writing" doesn't. While I think I understand the basic premise of this article, I'm aware that I could be completely off the mark. This article was, for me, about as captivating as reading the phone book.

Wednesday's article

I found the assigned reading for today very interesting. I have tended to think of my writing as existing in a vacuum - I'm sure that my Marxist criticism of Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" hasn't affected anyone's life. But in this age of new media, writing can be widely distributed - even without the knowledge of the writer.

For example, I wrote an article for the St. George News (stgnews.com) about a local guy who got a counterfeit bill from Chase Bank. I didn't know that my story made The Consumerist and Reddit until after it already happened. My story about a guy in a small town in Utah has gone nationwide without me doing anything to encourage it.

This is the reality with new media. We need to be aware that our writing does not exist in a vacuum - unless you never input it into a computer.

Reaction: "The Museum of Me"

While I think that Ellen Ullman's somewhat reactionist assessment of the rise of the Web is not completely accurate, especially in the light of the continuing popularity of social media, she does illuminate some concepts that I only vaguely recognized before. Disintermediation - removing the intermediary from transactions whenever possible - is very real. I've bought car insurance online without using an agent. I've done my taxes on Turbo Tax's website without any tax education or training at all. I've traveled around the country and to Canada without ever talking to a travel agent. The face of service employment is changing, shrinking, and if things continue as they are now, will soon be non-existent.

I've also noticed that "real life" and what people do on the Web are merging. I began using the internet in earnest in 6th grade, when I was 11 years old. The acronym IRL (in real life) was used extensively back then, and continued to be used extensively until maybe 4 years ago. Who I was online was separate from who I was IRL. Because of the extremely dysfunctional family unit I grew up in, I had more friends online than I did IRL. Any IRL people who found out I had friends on the internet that I had never even met were horrified.

I had a couple of conversations like this:
Other person: "How do you KNOW that she's a 14-year-old girl in New Jersey?"
Me: "She told me so. We've been friends for 3 years. It's hard to keep a charade up that long."
Other person: "But they could have. It could be some old perverted man."
Me: "I've spoken to her on the phone."
Other person: "Well, he could have gotten someone to talk on the phone for him."

I haven't heard anything even remotely resembling a conversation like that in 5 years.

I think that the structure of the Web makes it easier than ever for people to get stuck in their own Museum of Me. I think that Facebook is helping make it less likely that people will do that.

But this is still frightening. We are experiencing the biggest societal shift since the Industrial Revolution. Change isn't bad, but it's scary because of the uncertainty that it causes.

While I don't think Ullman has it all right, I am a bit frightened.

Chapter 15 or 16 Blog Post?

Hi Tracie, We missed your post for Chapter 15 or 16 this week. Please keep up with future assignments announced in class. Dr. B =)