How unhealthy is technology for writers?

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Idkwiaowiw

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I don't mean computers, but how unhealthy is the text lingo, the smiley icons, the pop culture, the reality shows, TV/computer in general? Is the internet just trash (eliminating research sites/a website like this, specifically to help writers?) Oh my. Does this even make sense?
 

Khimera9

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online videogames distract me from writing if that's what you mean. :D
 

Matera the Mad

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IMO anything that encourages sloppy writing and sloppy thinking is unhealthy. The Internet is not to blame for what is put into it. But TV, the Evil Grandmother, is a taproot of stupidity.

Learning to sift and evaluate information is a must. If it isn't being nurtured somewhere, somewhen, either in the home or at school, it isn't going to catch on very well.

The Evil Grandmother suffocates minds, and thought dies happy.
 

jvc

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I get distracted by everything. When I'm distracted I get distracted from being distracted. Even now I'm distracted. At some point I'm not going to be distracted, and there'll be a thread move to another room. I am distracted though. So it won't happen right away. If only there were less distracted people who weren't always distracted by distracting things, there'd be no distracted people anymore and just one green bottle sitting on the wall.

I blame the internet. And television.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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I agree about the sloppy writing, sloppy thinking thing, Matera. But I don't believe that TV is any sort of evil or that it somehow suffocates minds.

Sure, there are some lowest common denominator shows such as low level sitcoms and reality shows, but there is a lot of intelligent work there, not to mention educational shows.

I watch a lot of TV, but I don't watch much on network TV.
 

the addster

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I don't think any of that is necessarily bad for writers. Reality TV and the internet are just the latest in linguistic and cultural trash. There has always been something.

I wouldn't speak to you in the same way I speak to someone from my home town. I don't write like this when writing for real.

I have watched Rock Of Love, but I've also read the classics.

Everything has it's place.

If intelligence and culture was degenerating at the rate that has been predicted since folks could make predictions, we would have all just been grunting for a long time now.
 

mscelina

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None of it affects my writing. Writing is my profession. I would no more allow American Idol or textspeak to interfere with any other profession, be it waiting tables or teaching Latin. As a professional, it's my responsibility to approach writing in an adult and educated manner--and that includes what I permit to influence my writing from everyday life.
 

Libbie

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I think the internet is a tool like any other. You can use it for good or evil.

As for text writing, I think it needs to be staked through the heart. It's a bad habit to fall into, if your goal is to communicate with a large number of people.
 

blacbird

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I don't mean computers, but how unhealthy is the text lingo, the smiley icons, the pop culture, the reality shows, TV/computer in general?

None of this is beyond your control. The bolded, above, is a good example of stuff I pay utterly no attention to, and therefore consumes zero mental energy. Nobody forces you to fart around with this nonsense.

caw
 

Claudia Gray

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The internet is a huge way people communicate with each other. If you're not interested in how people communicate, then I'm not sure why you'd even want to be a writer. Just because one particular slang term/lingo/etc. is not your particular mode of expression doesn't make it invalid, or the people who use it stupid.

Honestly engaging with other people, and wanting to see how they view the world, is incredibly healthy for writers, and for most people, I'd think.
 

Ms Hollands

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I luv tchnlgy nd u no u do 2.

Seriously, like others have said, I don't see any problem with any of the above. I do think there'd be far fewer writers around today without post-typewriter technology (myself included).
 

Chasing the Horizon

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I think, if anything, the internet is making people more articulate. I'm in several online communities that aren't devoted to writing (AW is hardly a fair test of, lol), and most of the young people who've grown up with the internet are shockingly articulate in writing, even more so than I was at that age. It's because so much of the internet is text-based, and these kids spend ALL their free time online. They're reading and writing ten times more than people did pre-internet. In fact, the worst posts on my other forums generally come from older people who grew up pre-internet. They've obviously forgotten everything they ever learned in school about grammar and spelling, probably from lack of use.

It might be worth noting that a lot of places, including the other online communities I participate in, have banned chat-speak because serious writers aren't the only ones who find it annoying as hell.
 

Bluegate

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What is this? Some kind of stalker question?
Well, you can also look at as a new fangle way humans have found to thin the herd. Technology has opened up a world of doors for people who are willing to do the hard work. It has also provided self induced comas for those who don't. Less of them=more for us. I know it's evil. It's what I do.
 

MGraybosch

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I've heard a lot of lecturers complaining that text-speak is leaking into Undergraduate work.

I don't get that, but I never got into using textspeak or chatspeak. I've been online for 12 years, and I never indulged in gratuitous abbreviations. I have, however, linked to goatse.cx on numerous occasions. >^..^<
 

JimmyB27

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IMO anything that encourages sloppy writing and sloppy thinking is unhealthy.
Well, of course, that's not really in question. The question is; does technology and, specifically, the Internet, encourage sloppy writing and sloppy thinking?
Well, not necessarily. Children who use technology are 'better writers' says the UK's National Literacy Trust.
BBC article said:
Mr Douglas dismissed criticisms about the informal writing styles often adopted in online chat and "text speak", both of which can lack grammar and dictionary-correct spelling.

"Does it damage literacy? Our research results are conclusive - the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills."
 

RJK

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I'll bet they had this same discussion 100 years ago about typewriters, automobiles, telephones, and light bulbs.
 

NeuroFizz

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I've heard a lot of lecturers complaining that text-speak is leaking into Undergraduate work.
Not in my classes. They may try it once, but I haven't had a single student try it a second time. If it is leaking in, the fault lies with the instructors.
 

Wayne K

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I think it's like anything else, it's good if you use it wisely. By doing Uncle Jim's thread I learned in a few months, what would have taken me years.

Here on AW, I've done what I never could have done without the internet. Where else are you going to find a half dozen beta readers and line by line critiques from people who know what they're talking about?

Free.

Also, there are writing programs. When I was in 8th grade I wrote a book with pen and paper, and typed it out with an electric typewriter. It took almost a year, and a thousand sheets of paper. With MS, I correct the word instead of using white out, or tearing up the page.

It's not technology, it's the writer who determines whether or not it's evil.

FWIW
 

Manuel Royal

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I don't use smilies (Ambrose Bierce didn't either, so there). But I do have a bad habit of getting distracted by the amazing resource sitting in front of me. I'm writing away, and a thought occurs that requires looking something up, and then it's half an hour web-surfing from one subject to another. Totally breaks my concentration.

So I've had to discipline myself into making notes for later research instead.
 
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