Effects of Internet Writing; Composition & Comprehension

Everyone who writes and publishes articles on the internet wants to be the best and first, wants to attract the most traffic and to make the most from their affiliate sites yet far too many give only a nod to the quality of the article. This usually means short articles are filled with system defined keywords, short comments are made with little thought above upping some score somewhere and mundane personal info is filling the web yet enhancing very few. But what is all this doing to the world’s overall reading and writing skills?

Internet writing goes against many of the rules we are taught in school. I remember being taught not to overuse words. I remember the struggle I had to curb my tendency for run on sentences. I remember having to expand my vocabulary to be able to choose more descriptive wording and I remember having to back up my “facts”. There were so many more trials that forced me to grow mentally and expand my thought processes that it boggles the mind to think where we are headed. Composition teachers reigned and historical texts were the most often used but we learned and brought those skills into the working world.

Internet writing encourages novices to repeat words (sometimes incessantly) or to use more commonplace words to match search engines – scores go up, traffic increases and everyone’s happy right? But where is the quality? Do we realize that we are selling our natural creative intelligence in exchange for marketing ploys?

And what is it doing to our children and us? Our children get information faster but in a simple context that doesn’t continuously challenge their comprehension skills – a level is reached and then stops. Adults become adept at skimming articles that are often not meant for the edification of the mind or the soul but are written more for the publisher’s edification. Looking at the whole internet experience, there are only a small percentage of articles that are written to actually exercise our brains.

For years schools have used research to teach reading skills and to challenge the mind but since most of this is now done on-line, inventive venues will have to be sought. Libraries and adult participation to foster the imagination through hard copy will have to take the lead to teach children to engage their thought processes beyond the sixth grade level. Fortunately technology is preparing for this to occur. PDF files have become commonplace and Kindle books are expanding with every passing day; Barnes and Noble has introduced their own e-book reader and sales of hard copy and e-books have not dipped as far as many market segments in today’s economy. Unfortunately other industries that revolve around hard printed copy are still determining their place in the future market.

Looking back at history to get a view of tomorrow, it would appear that ten years from now we will see that the information freefall we are experiencing today has settled down. I personally think we will see that newspapers will become regional although magazines will continue to thrive. Fast facts, news clips and descriptive pages like manuals and product info will come back into the forefront; a handful of quality internet sites that have kept a tight rein on content will have claimed their rightful place as the most trusted for personal research and will lead the world in reliable information. Writers who have spent these years practicing their craft on networks like HubPages will be clamoring to write for these reliable sites. Writers who have formed partnerships with companies in today’s world will be sought after by legit companies in the future as consumers will be less tolerant of internet marketing sites that are too full of hype and money making scam sites will have slowed significantly. But what about social networking sites?  They will thrive but will have raised the bar on content (although this may be wishful thinking). Legitimate publishing houses will emerge that only publish through e-books and will be as viable as the best hard copy publishers we have today. Amazon has already come to the table for this venue and will lead the race.

Expanding our world through reading and imagination will never go out of style, the pathway will have just shifted and the internet - with more quality than it is producing today - will have secured an even more reliable role in our future.