Individual Journal Entry

I do not think that digital technology does change how we understand what writing is. I think this because social media has given people an opportunity to put their thoughts out for anybody to read if they wanted. Posting on social media gives people a chance to practice writing. Everyday writing is a way for people to get their thoughts down in the easiest way possible. Everyday writing, to me, is not formal and when I think of social media or emails, I think of a very casual, very open statement made by someone who just wants to write down their thoughts. It is a lot like a journal or diary, but not private. Barton, in The Anthropology of Writing, mainly talked about writing on a picture website. He spent more time talking about how people are clever with captions and how people add their own twist to them, such as “Hey baaaaby! Don’t hate me! =)).” Social media is a place for people to express themselves, but that does not mean that people have lost the understanding of writing. Writing is expression no matter what its form, even though there are formal and informal documents. I think that a novel is a formal document, but the other took the time to put their imagination and beliefs onto paper. It is the same thing with writing in digital technology. Someone is taking the time to write out what they think whether it is political, a comment on their friend’s picture, or a joke. It is writing, and everyday writing.