Are Computers Good for Writers?
Is the computer really a better pencil? Will it lead to better writing? Just about every other new writing instrument has been seen as a threat to literacy and a corrupter of youth.
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Hardware and software for word processing have evolved to the point where the computer screen gives quite a good imitation of what words will look like on the printed page…Now that we have finally attained this long-sought goal of ink-on-paper verisimilitude, the future prospects of paper itself seem a little tattered around the edges. Much text today is not only written on the screen but also read on the screen. Few Web pages, blogs, e-mail messages or Facebook updates are ever printed out, and newspapers, magazines and books are distributed online in editions designed to be read on computers or on more-specialized devices such as the Kindle. Virtual paper is displacing the real thing.
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