There’s no doubt about it; our generation is that of computers. No other group of people has grown up as dependent on these little machines as we have. We use them for communication, for information, for shopping, for entertainment—it’s no wonder that high school students today can scarcly imagine life without an iMac or Windows. Ten years ago, one could get by in school and work without having internet access at home; now, those people are in the vast minority and have to struggle alongside a much more computer-savvy population. As computers continue to pervade every aspect of our lives, it is only natural that they take on a position in education and literacy. These days, one can extend his ideas to millions by writing his thoughts on a blog; before, the only way to get even close to that kind of exposure was to hope to be published in a magazine or newspaper. The effect is that putting one’s writing out there is easy—all it takes is the right kind of marketing strategy. It is obvious that this new idea of “computer literacy” is here to stay—but what implications does it have for society?
If an uneducated, untrained person can reach millions of people from a blog just as well as a well-known author can, does that lower our standards on writing? Computer literacy is making it easier to be heard—it’s no longer as necessary to get a publicist or an agent since all one really needs is a laptop. In a way, this is a good thing—writing becomes less of an acitvity for the elite and more of a path to global communication and understanding. It could be that, since it’s now so easy to publish one’s thoughts, people will be eager to improve their writing in order to get it out to the public. This is the most optimistic view of future computer literacy, and one that I like to envision, that of people from different continents and of all ages sharing their ideas and opinions in an educated, enlightened way. I think, if we play our cards right, that we can have a smarter and more open-minded population through the use of computers. We could respect and build on the writing of the past while forging a new path, a global one with many different perspectives.
Then, there is a darker side to the computer and its role in writing. If absolutely anyone can publish his thoughts for the entire world to see and if everyone does so, it’s only natural that the quality of writing floating out there on the internet will be poorer in quality than that of published, printed material. After all, the people posting on blogs in every corner of the world don’t have editors hounding them about subject-verb agreement and ending sentences in prepositions—their writing quality can suffer and noone would notice. What, then, will happen if the writing of the masses becomes the standard? Will we forget all about the rules (I hate to call them rules, the conventions of writing, but I can think of no better word) and simply write, write, write, until our ideas are incoherant due to bad grammar and spelling and punctuation? Do not think I’m some uptight grammar teacher, I groan and complain about the dryness of learning proper English as much as anyone else, but one must admit that without some guidelines there is nothing to ensure that English stays, well…right. Correct. We can’t let the quality of our language (and it really is a good language) deteriorate because of millions of people are writing drivel and spelling things wrong and forgetting their commas. We just can’t.
So, I guess that English is at an impasse. Being the international tongue, the language that more people learn than any other, it will be the one that either soars or sinks when computers have their say in communication. On one hand, computer literacy could give rise to a new, educated, international population that shares ideas on a global scale. On the other hand, the sheer amount of bad writing that is bound to surface could become the standard, and English could be degraded to a mere parody of itself, a fusion between Shakespeare and text messaging. Where will my generation take English next, to rebirth or to ruin? It truly is up to us.
