Week 15 Journal

What role does technology play in everyday writing and composing?

Technology has sufficiently evolved the world we live in, in even more ways than we even realize. Before the age of computers, there was no email or long distance communication, or accessible knowledge at the click of a mouse. If people wanted to compose or view others' writing, they had no option but to leave the comfort of their homes and send their letters from a post office and find their information from the library. Before cell phones (and more specifically smartphones) print writing or face to face was the only means on interpersonal communication. Now, however, there is a technological tool for just about any task that someone could ever wish to complete. This led to the decline of print newspaper sales, magazines, libraries, post offices, etc because there no longer was a need to venture out and complete these everyday tasks by purchasing these goods when they were more easily accessible online. Following the movement in the direction of technology and online sites, technology has vastly impacted not only what everyday writing is, but also how its done. Technology now helps to define everyday writing in that it enabled individuals to compose through new methods such as email, text messages, blogs, online newspaper and magazine sites, as well as granting the ability for anyone to create their own web pages on the Internet. The emergence of new types of everyday writing goes hand in hand with how these pieces are composed as well, in that due to the ability to instantaneously publish an individual's work and have it be seen by an immense amount of people, a trend has started in the direction of digital composing over print. More and more people are taking this easier and more accessible route and so the technology that allows this is continuously changing what everyday writing is and how we are going about creating it with the help of all of these advanced technological tools.