(Com)posers or Consumers? A Reconsideration of the Impact of New Media Writing Technologies on Today’s Composition Students

In their 2003 essay, “Under the Radar of Composition Programs: Glimpsing the Future Through Case Studies of Literacy in Electronic Contexts,” Danielle DeVoss, Joseph Johansen, Cindy Selfe, and John Williams open with the following question: “What understandings of text and composing will students bring with them to the college classroom in the next decade, especially those students habituated to reading and composing the kinds of new-media texts that have come to characterize contemporary computer-based environments?” (157) The authors proceed to answer this question by presenting then synthesizing three distinct technology literacy narratives. While the authors present much food for thought through these narratives, the question itself has parts to it that require more detailed examination. One such part is the reading and composing “habits” of today’s students, or as I ask the question: What technologies, including new media, are students composing and consuming themselves with today? This study is the first in a series that attempts to answer this rephrasing of the important question posed by DeVoss, Johansen, Selfe and Williams.