Baron Reading

Summary
Dennis Baron's article is about how technology has influenced literacy. Whether it be in a positive, or negative light. This article highlights how major publications such as The New York Times have teamed up with internet broadcasting companies to get their headlines out to the public faster, and on a more public stream. (This being a positive effect technology has had on literacy.) Negative effects include people's inability to spell because of their reliance on word processors to catch their mistakes.

Questions For Discussion
2. I believe that writing, like technology is always going to be evolving. And with in the last 10-15 years, writing and technology have seemed to change hand in hand. I agree that they are both changing, and quite possibly evolving into something greater. But I do not believe that technology has ever limited or permanently harmed writing.

4. The type writer is an example of something that used to be considered technology, but now it hardly is. Type writers have been over taken by computers and word processing programs. This is why it is barely considered technology anymore, because while at one point it was used every day to function, it had since been over taken and thus no longer needed to perform daily tasks.

6. The pictures that Baron puts in his text help to give it personality. Since they are mainly cartoons/meant to be humorous, it softens the opinions he has for both pro and anti technology and writing. I do consider them as writing only because they convey a message that wouldn't necessarily be available via words.

My Own Opinions
I really liked this article because it gave an opinion, not facts about how technology has influenced writing. I grew up in the decade right when technology first started being introduced into classrooms as a teaching device. I remember being in Kindergarten and using the 1996 Mac desktops in our classroom. The teachers didn't have desktops on their desks yet, but we started learning how to put our fingers on the keyboard because someone somewhere realized that that was where education and communication and writing in general was headed: technology. However at the ripe age of 6 I didn't understand the longterm, potential effects technology would have on writing.