Linton Weeks spoke about what he thought was significant issues related to online writing in his Feb. 1 article "iT was a dark+stormy Nite...Online, Anyone Who Types Can Be a 'Writer.' In Theory, That Is." Some of things he said in the article are mentioned below.
On writing on and for the internet:
Not always in complete sentences.
Often with bullets.
Not a lot of punctuation but a great deal of self-exploration you know
case often lower when should be upper and Vice Versa
Rife with misteaks -- easily corrected bur mor often not.
Full of attitude and not always kind. Sometimes sinister and fraught with swear words. Othertimes saccharine and spangled with winking, smiley-faced emoticons.
These are just to name a few.
Other areas that Litton focused on were:
Blogs -- Litton talks about how everyone can create their own blog now. Blogs can be about anything the author wants them to be about and involve people like Dave Barry, musician Moby and novelist William Gibson.
Fan Fiction -- This online feature allows people to interact with their favorite book, movie, video games, cartoons and Tv shows. The individuals then write story lines, called fanfic.
Role-Playing Games -- RPGs (as they are called) are online games that allow people to assume other identities and interact as characters. One game that Litton uses as an example is Astonia, a game where the player undergoes battle training to solve quests, kill monsters and discover new places.
News Filterese -- These sites are primarily used for finding any kind of news the audience is interested in locating. For instance, Fark is a site for mature audiences that seeks out "witty, weird, wired and worldwide news on the Internet and posts it."
Span Poetry -- The people who do this will take lines from spam-mail and piece together new poems.
Prose Parodies -- This allows people to take polls or suggest a different way something should be written. People can write in a complete their own style of the way they think a story should have been written.
My look at this article:
Many things in this article are truthful in some way. Writing on the internet is getting shorter. People are paying less attention to the way they write and spend more time in making themself heard. Internet "junkies" are finding new ways to appease their creativity and stimulate their mind.
In all this, though, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. People who may not normally write are given the chance to fit in on the Internet. They are not judged by the way they type the words. Now, this shouldn't get out of hand to the point that all we do is type like we do when talking to a buddy on IM, but I think online writing should be encouraged more.
We should be looking at the fact that there are more people who are expressing themselves because they can write what they feel on the Internet. I'm not saying everything put on the Internet is good. But atleast it gives people the chance to be good.
Litton talks about how people will start to read something and then they have so many options to go other places that the orginial reading is forgotten. That may be the truth, but I think this kind of technology is a good thing. I think it is healthy to stimulate people to explore other options.