What is Writing?

At the beginning of this quarter, if you had asked me to define writing, my answer would probably not have strayed far from those which are purely academic based. I viewed writing as more of a chore than anything else. I associated it with school, papers, taking notes, etc. It was (and still is), unfortunately, associated with a grade. However, over the course of this class, I have been able to change my mentality. Writing has become more than a simple grade. Yes, it has always been more than this but I am just recently beginning to acknowledge it.Writing is present everywhere in everything that I do. It's in the text messages I send, the Instagram captions I compose. Writing is a critical component of my everyday life and a large part of who I am.  

Writing has an incredibly different meaning to everyone; it's all dependent on who you ask.  

Thanks to authors like Ong and Didion, I've learned that writing goes far deeper than I ever previously realized. Ong made me realize how prominent this writing is in our everyday lives and how oral culture is just as important as written culture. Didion made me realize that this twenty first century boom in technology is in fact tremendously beneficial to the writing culture. It's allowed for increased publicity, expression, and research. We are able to compose our thoughts whenever and wherever we want. Social Media websites such as Instagram and Twitter have blossomed into one of the most popular mechanisms of receiving news and important information. Most of the population now finds out about critical world news via Twitter. This generation loves the idea of keeping it concise and to the point. Reading tweets or seeing Instagrams is not nearly the same experience as reading a news article. However, it's become a way to connect each individual. We're now able to voice our opinion publicly; we don't just have to sit back and watch.