For Better or Worse

Death. Destruction. Defeat. Our democracy is dying saeth Chris Hedges. As if we didn’t see what was approaching as we picked up Hedges’ “Bad days for Newsrooms-and Democracy,” he is quick to confirm our preconceived notions of his opinions. Hedges continues to inform us on how the world is drawing itself more and more downward towards the pit of intellectual defeat. Well, at least he is continuing to be optimistic.

On the other hand, we have the inspiring, yet not overbearing, Clive Thompson and his piece, “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy” telling us the complete opposite. While Hedges blabbers on that the internet is continuing to kill our intellectual beings and that it is rapidly destroying the news, Thompson refutes Hedges opinion, saying “technology isn’t killing our ability to write…it’s reviving it.” Thompson, then, drives us back out of the black hole of worrying and enlightens us that technology may very well be helping our intellectual growth, rather than forcing it into submission. Thompson makes an interesting point when he talks of how much writing the average student does out of class: “Those Twitter updates and lists of 25 things about yourself add up.”

While Hedges and Thompson most certainly disagree upon the outcome technology has had on the intellectual parts of our everyday life, both would agree, and obviously so, that the internet and technology have had a radical change on life. Hedges argues that technology has had a negative effect, but Thompson assures us that it changed for the positive. Frankly, I would have to agree with Thompson. As he says, people, young people in particular, write more now than ever before in history.

Thus technology changes our lifestyles, changes our habits, and changes how we view the world. But ask yourself this, was it for the better or worse?