Inga Tracey 18:35, 2 Sep 2004 (EST)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
One of the most important impacts of the [electronic culture] is on writing. Personal computers and mobile phones have changed the way adolescents write. (Davies, 2003, p.87). Reading and writing are no longer the traditional forms of [literacy] that one would have grown up with in the generations past. Today's youth, however are exposed to the computer key board and the mobile text pad at increasingly younger ages (Davies, 2003, p.87). Teenagers are now studying, whilst listening to a CD, searching the net and dialling a friend on their cell phone. This ocean of information flows in, around, and through them while they snatch the bits of information they want to use from it (Withrow, 2004, p.29).
Although adolescents can learn many things through technologies, there are some drawbacks. By spending six to nine hours a day in front of a computer or watching television, there is less time for interaction with other people and less time to relate and converse with others. (Withrow, 2004, p.35).According to Davies, the average American adolescent spends an average of 9.8 hours a week on the internet, which totals over 500 hours per year (2003, p.63). Technology has become a dominant mode of communication within the adolescent culture of today. There is now a disintermediation of all information, this disintermediation refers to the increasing access to information instantaneously (Davies, 2003, p.67). This lack of conversation and increased use of technologies that has helped, according to Hudson, form a different language, perhaps an 'anti-language' for the adolescents, decreases their ability to break from this ['anti-language'] and into the literacy required to conduct everyday life (Hudson,1989,25)(Withrow, 2004, p.36).
Technologies have come into the daily speech of the adolescent culture, creating a complex coding of words and translations (Hudson,1989,p.25). According to Hudson, there is a need to think of language communities, rather than languages. The new technologies that have been embraced by youth culture have created a 'new' language community. A language community where 'social and linguistic attitudes are transmitted and strengthened by 'codes'. According to Hudson, 'individuals' come to learn their social roles through the process of communication. A social role from this point of view is a constellation of shared, learned meanings through which individuals are able to enter stable, consistent and publicly recognised forms of interaction with others' (Hudson,1989,p.19).
It is through these 'codes' that communication becomes much more than mere words. At the present rate of the development of the written word, in terms of human communication, the technology will be there to seriously supplant, if not replace, the written word in the near future. 'Today’s communication revolution is creating what is sometimes described as a post-typographic world. This [post-typographic] world and its attendant electronic culture is altering in a very profound way today's youth cultures' understanding of the meaning of literacy (Davies, 2003, p.83). 'Because of the vast on-screen editing features of word processing, the linear, sequential thinking of traditional writing formats can be dispensed with. For young people in an electronic culture, however, writing and word processing have become nearly synonymous' (Davies, 2003, p.90). There is no need to know the beginning middle or end of what is being constructed, traditional writing requires a more linear mode of thinking. According to Heim, 'writing that more approximates the speed of thought, as word processing does, results in greater rapidity of thinking. The end result, according to Heim, is that less thought and reflection reside in electronic writing'(Davies, 2003, p.90). This lack of thought and fast thinking, is also translated into the spoken word. The spoken word has become a continuation of the written codes developed through these new technologies. Both the written and spoken word have become quicker, and less structured, leaving room for not only 'codes' but also what Lacy refers to as the transformation of alphabetical literacy, the formation of word-symbols that are created to enable the users to produce their messages in half the time it would normally take (Lacy, 1996,p.3).
Due to the exposure and adoption of these new technologies by youth culture, today’s generation will emerge with a very different meaning of literacy and therefore learning.
Inga Tracey 14:44, 22 Oct 2004 (EST)
REFERENCES
Inga Tracey 14:34, 26 Oct 2004 (EST)
