Digital Reflection

Writing is extremely important. Writing is one of the many ways we communicate with one another. You can use writing to give information, an opinion, to argue a point, and so on. Writing is everywhere around us; in restaurant menus, offices, schools, books, magazines, the list goes on. Writing has played a huge role in my life. Since I was little my mom made sure she read to me every night and when I became old enough to r ead and write on my own, I made my own books. I’d write fictional stories and bring them to school to show my teachers. They were so amazed by them so they put them in the class library for everyone to read. Writing has contributed to my identity enormously. In the 4th grade, writing became a struggle for me. My essays would be all over the place. They weren’t even essays, it was just a long paragraph. I would start writing about one thing and change the subject to something that had nothing to do with the assignment. When my teachers saw that I wasn’t writing like the other students, they evaluated me and realized I have a learning disability. I was put into special education and before you knew it, my writing improved tremendously. Writing has helped me understand my identity because after learning how to write properly, I began to love English. That’s why I’m an education major with a concentration in English.

There is a lot of differences and similarities between general and digital writing. Writing by hand and typing both require passion, dedication, and deep thought. However, writing by hand and digital writing has more differences than similarities. General writing in ways is more difficult than typing because you can make more errors while handwriting. You could forget to add a period at the end of a sentence, you could forget the apostrophe in a word, miss a comma, or forget to capitalize certain letters. Typing does all of that for you with autocorrect. In ways, this is negatively affecting writers because we forget the general fundaments of writing. Writing by hand improves literacy, reading comprehension, recalling memory, creativity, and improves critical thinking.

Following Taylor’s understanding of the term, I am a producer of my culture because I’m made up with values, beliefs, interests, and experiences created by my generations behavior. In my opinion, no one really benefits from what I produce because things change every day. Before you know it, the newest products will come out and what we thought was cool, will no longer be that way. As of today, I use Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. I use all of these apps for personal use. Everything on my social networking apps is things that wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate for professional, political, artistic, or academic reasons. I just use them to connect with friends and family. I post pictures of my friends and I, share stats I feel connected to, and like things that other people post. These apps shape my life in many ways which can be both positive or negative. Positive because it allows me to stay connected with the world such as news, the latest trends, and music. Negative because I can get so sucked into being behind a screen which can make it difficult to communicate with people face to face.

In this generation, it’s hard not to be a consumer of digital culture. Everyone wants or has the latest products and if you don’t it looks bad on your part. It’s hard not to be because companies such as Apple make it impossible to not have the latest products. For example, every time a new phone comes out I’m forced to get it because somehow Apple forces you to update your phone to the latest software update and when you do that your phone starts acting funny and it’s time for a new one. The companies benefit from what we consume because they’re the ones getting paid for what we buy. We lose money because we’re buying things we don’t need. Newer phones can do everything the older version of a phone can do. Producers find ways to draw consumers in with things such as a better camera, or a stronger battery life. When in reality we don’t need it, we just want it. As a consumer, I’d say I mostly buy new phones. Whenever a new iPhone comes out I’m the first to buy it. This past year the new iPhone X came out but when I realized how much money I spend on new phones, I learned that I don’t need a new phone when mine works perfectly fine and can still do everything the newer phone can do minus a few unnecessary things.

Technology has the ability to enhance relationships between teachers and student in Education. When teachers use technology in their classrooms, teachers grow as educators. Technology helps make teaching more fun for students. Using iPads and laptops make learning more fun because it helps engage a class in discussion. Technology is a very effective way of education. It allows for new opportunities for learning and broadens experiences for students. Children are constantly surrounded by technology outside of school, so having that interactive way of learning is appealing to all ages. Another great thing about having technology in a classroom is gaining outside information that books and things around the classroom can’t give you. Technology has changed the working environment so that work can be hands on. Every child learns differently and technology helps with keeping all students on the same page. Technology is a critical component when it comes to the outside world, so giving kids the opportunity to explore it at a young age is essential.