Technology, text’s transformer and transmitter, is altering the world we live in by using new mediums by which texts, “socially contextual symbols”, are delivered.
Technology has existed since ancient time, but it can almost be considered a ‘novelty’ in the modern world because of its exponential development over the past decades.
Technology certainly brings understandings in new dimensions for the world to progress. Indeed, the development of technology is happening at an unprecedented speed that no one could have ever predicted.
Technology being in constant evolution makes it a dynamic way to deliver texts and meanings. It allows new ideas to spread quickly and new meanings to transform the world for the better. In addition, it can help us change our perception of the world.
However, does technology make texts more understandable? Does this new way of reading and writing texts make communication easier than before? Are we all totally ready for “the changing spaces of reading and writing”? Is this revolution a moment we were all silently waiting for to move education forward? It looks like this young lady has a hard time using her cellular phone to text a message! Somehow this picture is actually one of déjà-vu. Isn’t it?
Reference
Flickr Creative Commons. Le texto. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolo57/4171743386/
Nicely said: technology “allows new ideas to spread quickly and new meanings to transform the world for the better”.
I think the girl in the photo is not having trouble using her phone, but perhaps she is deeply engaged in the text message and or application she is reading or using. Just another example of how text can have various meanings, and can be interpreted differently by everyone and anyone.
I don’t know about you, but that is how I look when I’m trying to read my map – haha. Tara
Hi Tara,
As you have just mentioned, there are so many interpretation possible we all can make of one simple “thing” or an “image”. That is an interesting picture for sure. Clearly, this kinf of look at a cellphone screen we are seeing that frequently. Using technology to read texts is not always a relaxing activity. Unfortunately, with it might come some anxiety. ;o)
Johanne
Hi Johanne,
I think that the answer to how understandable cell-phone texts and IM texts are depends on who you ask. If you ask a student to read a cell phone text or to read a paragraph by pretty much any Victorian writer (Heck, by many newer writers too), most students would probably say the text is easier to understand. Granted, “understand” could mean a lot of things. It could mean understanding the literal, immediate meaning of the sentence or it could mean understanding all of the context of that sentence.
It’s tough to say if we’re ready because, as Postman reminds us, we don’t necessarily know what we’re getting ready for; however, we’ll probably get through it one way or another.
Chris
Chris,
Your comment about the cell phone text and the perception a student might have on how easy it is to read compare to regular text is certainly right. However, I think that we are not all equally ready for these changes spaces of writing and reading. Everyone seems to embrace new technologies in different paces. Still, I know people who do even have a cell phone yet, just to name this technology. For different reasons, they think they are unneccessary.
Johanne