New Literacy

Blogging has become a new way of communication of this century.  Even within this class, right now, we are blogging our thoughts for an audience, in this case our classmates.  In my own writing experiences as well, outside of all school and classroom settings, I blog.  My Tumblr is a way for me to express myself daily.  I have daily posts about what happens to me during my day, or my thoughts or feelings toward something specific.  Even pictures and quotes are a way of written expression.  I have followers that read my blog as well as people that I follow their blogs and keep up with what is going on in their lives.  That is what is so important about blogging.  The audience.  Just as Thompson says, “the fact that students today almost always write for an audience gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing.”  Obviously I’m not going to have the same format in my blog as I would a research paper for a class.  This is because the audience that students today write for develops their entire style and tone of a piece of writing.  As well as posting my thoughts, I can respond to other’s blogs as well.  In this way, it makes the conversation public and therefore, according to Thompson, close to the ancient Greek style of argument.  My blog is just one specific example that supports Thomspon’s views on new literacy.  In addition, I use Twitter, which according to him the text in tweets adds up over time.  There are many more other solid examples in my life that back up Thompson’s views.