Digital Technology and Writing

We use digital technology every day. From updating a Facebook status to texting, digital technology has become a major part of our culture. Because of this, we find that the amount that we write has increased. Imagine how much you text. While you are formulating thoughts and writing them down, one would not consider this to be “real” writing. To most people, “real” writing takes the form of essays or legal documents. For some reason, when we use technology to write, we are no longer composing “real” writing. I believe that this is because digital technology is so prevalent in our lives. When we text, we do not think about the fact that we are writing. It has become normalized to a point where it has become invisible to us. However, the act of writing, putting thoughts to paper (or in this case a cell phone screen), is still the same. Just because the thoughts are not hand-written on paper, it doesn’t mean that it is not considered writing. Another reason why writing using digital technology is not always considered “real” writing is because the skills required to compose “real” writing are not used when making a Facebook status. These require other skills. Imagine if you texted a friend the same was you write a research paper. Causal language, while it may not seem important, can show us more about a culture than formal writing can. As we depend more on digital technology for communication, we lose sight of the fact that we are using writing to communicate, regardless if it is “real” or not.