Goodbye Eraser, Hello Backspace! : Writing in the 21st Century

One of the most beautiful things of the Internet is that it’s available for people of all ages. Sure, it helps to be a little tech-savvy to know your way around but with the help of a tutorial or a younger human to show you the ropes, using the Web can be quite a pleasant experience.

I was born in the 90’s so I think in some statistics that makes me a Millennial. In today’s day and age, being a Millennial is an advantage in such a fast-paced and technical world. Why? Because we’ve grown with technology; aged as it developed and became more refined. We grew up with dial-up being the Norm and having to sacrifice phone time just to play flash games or do homework. Now that we’re so close to being in the 20’s again, (2020’s but still…can we bring back speakeasies and jazz?) our younger generation is growing up already immersed in this digital world. I swear I have cousins that were born with an iPhone in hand. Back to the point in hand, what I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter if you grew up before the internet or during its conception, what matters is how you can use it now to make your life easier.

Writing, for the main example, is vastly different from how it was 30 years ago. Pencil and paper, sure, nothing can beat the sound of freshly sharpened graphite on a smooth piece of writing paper. It’s so unique; where being left handed or right handed matters, where everyone’s handwriting is different, and the smell of burnt rubber when you make too many mistakes. It’s all so perfect in its simplicity.  Today, we hear the click-clacking of the keyboard and the backspace button when you delete something you don’t like. Left-handers like myself don’t have to worry about smudging what they wrote because there’s no ink to smudge. Typing helps gets one’s thoughts out faster, I believe, than when writing. (At least for me.) Writing in the 21^st century is for everyone, whether they are as simple as tweets, blog posts or as in-depth as a novel. (Shout out to all the NaNoWriMo writers out there!)

The internet has been influential on my writing because it made it easier for my work to be seen by nonbiased people who would give me their honest opinion on my work. I started writing on the internet when I was about 11 or 12 years old, of course, this was only in the form of fanfiction. I would write down original stories using characters from movies or TV shows that I liked (thank you Fanfiction.net for existing). It was my creative outlet of getting characters do whatever I wanted, instead of waiting for the show writers to do it for me. As I grew older, the fictions grew with me and my writing style refined itself just a bit. I was encouraged to keep writing from the reviews I would get from fans of my stories thus gaining a rush of posting a new chapter that was just so fun and exciting for me.

Fast forward to present day; I have a blog now, and I’m treating it as a portfolio of creative thoughts and ramblings that may insert themselves into my mind. I don’t want to think of this as a journal because even when I was younger, I was horrible at keeping up with my journal. Below is an excerpt from my fellow blogger who shares his thoughts on how the Internet has affected his writing.

 “It’s affected my writing because, I know what I say will be seen by anyone that wants to express their opinions. If it’s a personal post, people will let you know what they feel; and at times, can counter with something of their own. …I also try to avoid repeating what others are saying, since, many have expressed their opinions on it, and while you can add their opinions and expand on those, it’s wiser to also offer your thoughts.”

This topic is in collaboration with Fico’s Gaming Mind, (the snippet above is from his adjoining post) trying to shine a light on the advantages (and some on his side) disadvantages of having a presence online. Please read his thoughts on his experience on the Internet here!

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I had never collaborated with anyone before so this was pretty fun for my first time. He has a great start on his blog so please go and check it out if you like deep insight on life with a little twist of gaming. Thanks again for reading. Until next time!

[Image via here]