Technology and Literacy Narrative

John Cameron O’Brien

Professor Lynn Raymond

UWRT 1104-002

1/18/2019
 Technology might be one of the most helpful tools to society today. Our lives revolve

technology which is fascinating because we did not have this technology 20 years ago. If you

walked around a city 20 years ago, you would see nobody whipping out their phone to google

something but today, everyone is using their phone for more than texting and calling. While

technology has had a major impact on society in a social way, it also has had a major impact on

the way we learn due to the continuous improvement of technology in the classrooms. It has

changed the way kids learn to write, spell, use diction, and many more.

Writing has become something very easy for kids to learn how to do and we can thank

technology for that. Rarely ever does a kid have to sit down with a pencil and paper and write out

an eight-page paper. They are now doing everything on a computer which simplifies everything

within writing due to the smartness of the computers. When a sentence needs a comma, the

computer suggests you put in a comma. When a word is misspelled, the computer suggests the

correct spelling of the word. When a student decides to change the introduction paragraph, the

introduction paragraph can be re-written without having to start back over. These are all

examples of how computers have simplified the life of this generation when it comes to writing.

There is no more looking up how to spell a word in the dictionary, looking for synonyms in the

thesaurus, or trying to decide if a comma is needed. All that you need is right in front of you and

it is making learning how to write so much easier.

While technology has its benefits, it also has it downfalls due to the simplicity it gives to

learning in this generation. The simplification of everything has lead to the kids of this

generation not learning how to correctly write/compose because the computer does everything

for them. For example, the grammar is automatically fixed when a sentence is typed. The

computer is even smart enough that it can usually determine what you meant to say and change it
to the correct spelling or insert a comma for you so that your paper is grammatically correct. This

leads to kids not learning how to correctly spell or use commas because they have become so

dependent on the computer fixing their mistakes.

Lastly, the learning experience today, using technology, has created a barrier between

elders and young people. Parents and Grandparents are having a harder time helping their

children and grandchildren with homework and helping them be successful because there is that

barrier in between them. The elders cannot assist the young because they do not understand the

technology that is being used to teach the young. This is causing a decrease in the help from the

elders which in turn will result in the young not being as successful, due to a decrease in help at

home.