Novels were once considered inappropriate for study and of course are now familiar to English departments. Even though it is electronic, I believe that facebook is a legitimate form of writing. I believe that the same thing might happen with digital texts. However, I do not think it is worthy of study in school – at least not yet. Facebook is a social network that many people use to communicate with each other and write information about themselves. Facebook is sort of like the new and advanced form of letter writing. Today, people study letters that were written in the past as a way to find out historical information. With the way that our society is advancing in technology, I believe that it is a possibility that one day in the future, Facebook could also be studied just like how letters are studied today. Birkerts might say that Facebook cannot be considered a legitimate form of literature because it is too public and literature should be about getting lost in a text. According to Birkerts, reading and writing should primarily be private and intimate experiences in which the reader can become lost within the words on the page. With that being said, I strongly feel that everything about Facebook is indeed literary. I feel this way because Facbeook is centered around individuals and their relationships – the words on the site allowing them to maintain those intimate and somewhat private relationships. I think Hayles would agree with my argument that Facebook can be considered a legitimate form of literature because it is centered on personal connections and intimacy and it is so easy to get lost in the text that is available on the site.
Facebook is just like writing a letter to someone, but using a computer and the internet instead of mailing an actual letter to someone. I believe that both of these ways of communicating with other people can be quite personal and intimate. Therefore, I believe that facebook should be considered a legitimate piece of literature because letters are considered as such. The only difference between letter writing and writing to someone using Facebook is what a person is using in order to communicate with others. With all of the technological advances that have come about in the world today, why shouldn’t people take advantage of what they have been given? Communicating with others on Facebook is a much faster way of communication than by means of writing letters. If people do not like the idea of communicating with others using the internet, they still have the option of doing so through letters, should they choose to. Facebook is also an effective and fast way to learn information about other people by reading what is written on their profiles.
I think Hayles would agree with my argument that Facebook can be considered a legitimate form of literature. In Hayles’ book, Writing Machines, she talks about how the technological world and all of its advances have affected reading, writing, and literature. She believes that these changes in the technological world and the world of literature are good changes. What you use to read and write should not be what determines if something can or cannot be considered a legitimate form of literature. The only thing that should be able to determine whether a text can or cannot be considered legitimate is the content within the text itself.
I think Birkerts would disagree with my argument that facebook can be considered a legitimate form of literature. In his book, The Gutenberg Elegies, he talks about how reading and writing should be personal and intimate experiences. He says that literature should be about getting lost in a text and spending hours reading or writing because it is just so intriguing that you cannot stop. I completely agree with Birkerts’ thoughts about reading and writing. However, I do not think that he would consider Facebook a legitimate literary piece even though so many people spend hours on Facebook each day, getting lost in the text that is available to them on the site. If he thinks that reading and writing should be about getting lost in a text, then why can’t he consider Facebook a legitimate literary piece? I believe that Birkerts would not even give Facebook a chance to be considered legitimate because he considers all technology to be the devil. He believes that the technological advancements that have come about in today’s society are changing the “modification of the relation between the writer and the language” (Birkerts, 157). I can definitely see where Birkerts is coming from with this statement, and I do agree with him. However, I do not think that these technological advancements are necessarily changing the modification of the relation between the writer and the language in a bad way.
Although I believe that Facebook can be considered a legitimate form of literature, I understand why some people like Birkerts would disagree with my argument. Maybe the technological advancements that are coming about in today’s society are coming into the world too quickly. Maybe everyone should slow down with technology and all of its new advancements and cherish the simple things that have been around for a long time. I would not want to see technology completely replace print texts.
