Victoria Maurer’s Portfolio
Self Reflection:
My original essay was about technology’s rate of change and its influence on society. I chose to revise this essay because it was the freshest in my mind, in addition to the fact that I felt I could take the paper to a completely new level. Aside from minor changes in sentence structure and wording, I added about a page of new material, including quotes from Hayles that help to prove my point that books are here to stay. I wrote about the replacement of old by new, but I wanted to take a different approach to my subject of old versus new so I incorporated the fact that books and printed text have been around for such a long time without being traded for a newer technology. It was difficult for me to incorporate my idea into my already-existing paper, but I believe that I integrated this new facet somewhat seamlessly.
I have really enjoyed this semester of English because I feel that I have improved as a reader and a writer. I now take a much more analytical approach to reading and look for a deeper meaning. I have also gotten much better at connecting different themes and ideas in different texts that I read. My writing has improved tremendously, as well. In high school I was never given much freedom in my writing; most of the papers I wrote merely analyzed different novels or movies. I enjoyed being able to show my own ideas and creativity in my writing assignments. I would like to take a creative writing class in the future in order to continue my progress as a writer. I would also like to work on my ability to analyze other people’s papers and spotlight changes that they should make in their context.
Rate of Change
(Original Paper)
Life is affected by technology in an infinite number of ways, but everyone has a different opinion about whether those effects are positive or negative. Sven Birkerts, a critic of electronic text, wrote the novel The Gutenberg Elegies to emphasize his negative viewpoint on technology. He states, “The rate of change, social and technological, has surpassed exponentially the gradually escalating rates of previous periods” (214). Everyone can agree with Birkerts’ assertion that technology is advancing because they have witnessed the advent of phones, music players, television, and other electronics during their lifetime. The Internet in itself is a huge milestone, and, less than 20 years after its introduction to the public, phones can be used to access the Internet to check email, download music, and play games. It is obvious that technology is constantly evolving and become more advanced, but is it changing too quickly? While many can see both sides of the argument, electronic devices play too large of a role in modern life for society to ignore them.
Technology is a powerful tool that helps society advance and become more sophisticated. Without it, the world would be quieter and incredibly less connected. Many people cannot even imagine what life would be like without television, phones, and computers. These devices allow faster, more convenient communication between people who may not even live on the same continent. Information can be transmitted from place to place at the click of a button, allowing everyone in the world access to knowledge that they would not otherwise have. Technology is extremely influential and has helped the human race achieve many goals, from non-invasive surgery to accurate weather predictions. In a society where people always want things bigger, better, and faster, technology is an aspect of life that most people do not want to live without.
Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl demonstrates how rapidly technology has advanced in the past decade. The Internet allows people to link to countless sites with just the click of a button and, while Patchwork Girl does this to some extent, it is much more limited than society is accustomed to. The StorySpace program allows the user to navigate to different text boxes without having to follow the traditional line-by-line format that most novels use. Jackson purposefully uses the program in order to try to intrigue the reader and give him/her a different type of reading experience. Instead, its non-linear format confuses the audience and leaves them with no true sense of what the story is about. While it may have been an exciting program to use when it first came out, those who utilize it now deem it limiting because they are so familiar with the Internet. It is quite frustrating to read and comprehend because technology has progressed so much since it was published. Still, many readers would rather read hypertext like Patchwork Girl as opposed to a traditional book because it is closer to the style of text that they are familiar with. Even though Jackson’s text is somewhat limited in comparison to modern technologies such as the Internet, it is more interactive than reading a conventional novel page by page.
While many people adore hypertext, the Internet, and electronic devices, there are still a select few, like Birkerts, who are strongly opposed to society’s increasing dependence on technology. There is a piece of technology to achieve almost any goal, and as long as there is access to that technology, people would rather use it than do things the old-fashioned way. Birkerts is not keen on society’s dependence and believes that people are “wiring [themselves] into a gigantic hive” (219). His point is valid in the sense that life is affected by technology in every aspect, whether it affects one’s everyday tasks, professional life, or social life. However, what is wrong with taking the easy way out? Math would be a million times harder without calculators; researching and writing papers for school would take much longer without computers. Technological advancements occur continually, and there is a “steady displacement of old by new, a generational pressure that escalates, its momentum gathers and the members of the old dispensation age and die off” (214). All new devices are improvements upon a previous idea or tool, making it easy for society to adapt to using the new appliance to replace an old one. The only issue with newer and better products coming out is that the old products become useless. For example, Apple has come out with the iPhone, a device that allows the user to listen to music, place phone calls, check email, and access the Internet. Unfortunately, like Patchwork Girl and the StorySpace program, people who have the iPhone no longer have any use for their old, less sophisticated phones and music players. StorySpace is an obsolete program just 13 years after it was published, thus causing the reader to wonder about its relevance in today’s society.
In a society that constantly craves more, there is no time for old, outdated technology. Birkerts believes that things are progressing too quickly, as demonstrated by Patchwork Girl and the StorySpace program. New technology builds upon old devices, causing the old tools to become obsolete. The world is becoming more sophisticated with each passing day, but most people believe that the changes are positive. Technology gives us access to information and the ability to achieve goals that we would not be able to reach otherwise. As long as there is currently a machine to complete the task, there is no need for the old machine.
Works Cited:
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 1994.
Books: An Exception to the Rule
(Revised Paper)
Life is affected by electronics in an infinite number of ways, but everyone has a different opinion about whether those effects are positive or negative. Sven Birkerts, a critic of electronic text, wrote the novel The Gutenberg Elegies to emphasize his negative viewpoint on modern technology. He states, “The rate of change, social and technological, has surpassed exponentially the gradually escalating rates of previous periods” (Birkerts 214). Everyone can agree with Birkerts’ assertion that technology is advancing because they have witnessed the advent of phones, music players, television, and other electronics during their lifetime. The Internet in itself is a huge milestone, and less than 20 years after its introduction to the public, phones can be used to access the Internet to check email, download music, and play games. It is obvious that technology is constantly evolving and become more advanced, and usually old technologies are ignored after the invention of a replacement tool. Books, however, are an exception to the rule.
Technology is a powerful tool that helps society advance and become more sophisticated. Without it, the world would be quieter and incredibly less connected. Many people cannot even imagine what life would be like without television, phones, and computers. These devices allow faster, more convenient communication between people who may not even live on the same continent. Information can be transmitted from place to place at the click of a button, allowing everyone in the world access to knowledge that they would not otherwise have. Technology is extremely influential and has helped the human race achieve many goals, from non-invasive surgery to accurate weather predictions. In a society where people always want things bigger, better, and faster, technology is an aspect of life that people do not want to live without; however, even with the emergence of the Internet, books have yet to be replaced by a superior technology.
Shelley Jackson intentionally used the StorySpace program for Patchwork Girl because it was supposed to be the traditional novel’s replacement. Her text very clearly demonstrates how rapidly technology has advanced in the past decade. It was published in 1995, a few years before society began using the Internet on a daily basis, so her concept of making her work hypertextual was innovative at the time. However, the Internet is now much more advanced than Patchwork Girl and allows people to link to countless sites with just the click of a button. The StorySpace program only allows the user to navigate to different text boxes within the program. Jackson purposefully uses the program in order to try to intrigue the reader and give him/her a different type of reading experience as opposed to the traditional line-by-line format that most novels use. Instead, its non-linear format confuses and frustrates the audience only to leave them with no true sense of what the story is about. While it may have been an exciting program to use when it first came out, those who utilize it now deem it limiting because they are so familiar with its replacement: the Internet. Many readers would rather read a traditional book instead of a hypertext like Patchwork Girl, even with new technology like the Internet. So, why have books not been completely replaced by the Internet or programs such as StorySpace?
Books have proven to be an extremely resilient piece of technology. The format has withstood numerous threats to its existence from tools such as the Internet. It is quite obvious that books are here to stay. As N. Katherine Hayles states in her book Writing Machines, “Print books are far too hardy, reliable, long-lived, and versatile to be rendered obsolete by digital media” (33). People began to use papyrus scrolls to write down information around 2400 BC, followed by the eventual invention of the printing press in 1439. Since printed text has been around for so many years, it would take a truly remarkable invention to get rid of it. Books are unable to be replaced because they are so easily adjustable to the wants and needs of society. They are constantly “changing as we change, mutating and evolving in ways that will continue, as a book lover said long ago, to teach and delight” (Hayles 33). There are so many different books out there for people to read that no single person can say that they have not enjoyed any books they have read. The Internet even helps people find books that they enjoy by way of its many forums and blogs where people write about novels or texts that they found pleasurable.
While many people adore the Internet, hypertext, and electronic devices, there are still a select few, like Birkerts, who are strongly opposed to society’s increasing dependence on technology. There is a piece of technology to achieve almost any goal, and as long as there is access to that technology, people would rather use it than do things the old-fashioned way. Birkerts is not keen on society’s dependence and believes that people are “wiring [themselves] into a gigantic hive” (Birkerts 219). His point is valid in the sense that life is affected by technology in every aspect, whether it affects one’s everyday tasks, professional life, or social life. However, what is wrong with taking the easy way out? Math would be a million times harder without calculators; researching and writing papers for school would take much longer without computers. Technological advancements occur continually, and there is a “steady displacement of old by new, a generational pressure that escalates, its momentum gathers and the members of the old dispensation age and die off” (Birkerts 214). Most new devices are improvements upon a previous idea or tool, making it easy for society to adapt to using the new appliance to replace an old one. Luckily for book lovers like Birkerts, books have not yet been replaced because no one has conceived a way to improve upon them. The only issue with newer, improved products coming out is that the old products become useless. For example, Apple has come out with the iPhone, a device that allows the user to listen to music, place phone calls, check email, and access the Internet. Unfortunately, like Patchwork Girl and the StorySpace program, people who have the iPhone no longer have any use for their old, less sophisticated phones and music players. StorySpace is an obsolete program just 13 years after it was published while books have been around for hundreds of years without even a serious threat to their existence.
In a society that constantly craves more, there is no time for old, outdated technology. Birkerts believes that things are progressing too quickly, as demonstrated by Patchwork Girl and the StorySpace program. New technology builds upon old devices, causing the old tools to become obsolete. Fortunately, books seem to be here to stay. The world is becoming more sophisticated with each passing day, but most people believe that the changes are positive. Technology, whether it be a book, the Internet, or a phone, gives us access to information and the ability to achieve goals that we would not be able to reach otherwise. As long as there is currently a machine to complete the task more effectively than the old one, the old technology is made obsolete. Books do not fall into the category of obsolete technology and, as long nobody invents something that is more effective, they will never “go the way of the dinosaur” (Hayles 33).
Works Cited:
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 1994.
Hayles, N. Katherine. Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
