Journal Response #1

In our reading by Gitelman and Pingree, we were presented with the views that technology and furthermore, writing within technology, is not totally revolutionary. Gitelman and Pingree discuss the terms "new" and "media" as both separately and as one word. We learn that our generation's idea of what new media is may not be technically correct. New media is considered to be the time frame of 1740-1915.  This is because these are the years where we can see how digital media came to be what it is today. Going off of that, throughout their essay, Gitelman and Pingree are basically saying that social media might seem revolutionary to us when looking back on the past and previous forms of media, but if we were to have been teenagers when the typewriter was invented, that would've seen just as equally revolutionary to us. New media is seen as new based on perspective. Other forms of media seem old to us because we are living in a time where technology is everywhere and extremely common. The digital revolution is no doubt a creation of new forms of media, but it is not completely revolutionary because it wasn't a separate occurrence from all the other forms of new media in the past. Digital media is just the next step in the long staircase of progress within writing. The digital revolution couldn't have happened without all of the  inventions between 1740 and 1915 and even after that. It is a product of everything that has occurred so far.   

That being said, I do believe that writing is a different experience with digital media. It has become a new act. While we are still trying to communicate with one another and express our thoughts, technology has changed the way we do it and allowed us to be more personal in some ways and more impersonal in others, sometimes both simultaneously. Now with digital media, we go about writing differently than we ever have before. While the desired result is the same as it has always been, the process is completely different and then therefore changes how we write. Also, now with the web, the internet, and social media, we can no longer control the desired result that we have. We can no longer control writing as much as we used to. With technology, writing can spread and more writing can be added on top of the original. It can be discussed and it can be changed. All of these factors make writing a different experience than it use to be. While the digital era is not revolutionary, it has changed the writing experience.