In Always On, Naomi S. Baron reveals that online and mobile
technologies--including instant messaging, cell phones,
multitasking, Facebook, blogs, and wikis--are profoundly
influencing how we read and write, speak and listen, but not in the
ways we might suppose.
Baron draws on a decade of research to provide an eye-opening look
at language in an online and mobile world. She reveals for instance
that email, IM, and text messaging have had surprisingly little
impact on student writing. Electronic media has magnified the
laid-back "whatever" attitude toward formal writing that young
people everywhere have embraced, but it is not a cause of it. A
more troubling trend, according to Baron, is the myriad ways in
which we block incoming IMs, camouflage ourselves on Facebook, and
use ring tones or caller ID to screen incoming calls on our mobile
phones. Our ability to decide who to talk to, she argues, is likely
to be among the most lasting influences that information technology
has upon the ways we communicate with one another. Moreover, as
more and more people are "always on" one technology or
another--whether communicating, working, or just surfing the web or
playing games--we have to ask what kind of people do we become, as
individuals and as family members or friends, if the relationships
we form must increasingly compete for our attention with digital
media?
Our 300-year-old written culture is on the verge of redefinition,
Baron notes. It's up to us to determine how and when we use
language technologies, and to weigh the personal and social
benefits--and costs--of being "always on." This engaging and
lucidly-crafted book gives us the tools for taking on these
challenges.
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