Tenner and Lethem

These two authors speak about how technology is constantly changing and evolving over time. In Tenner’s “Rise of the Plagiosphere,” he talks about how there is new technology that can catch plagiarism in someone’s paper. For example, a teacher can insert a student’s paper electronically and the computer/web will find phrases, words, or sentences that match the student’s phrases, words, and sentences. While this may be sound like a great idea, at the same time it may create a sense of “writer’s block” as Tenner writes.

This correlates with the class research project in that the web is evolving so fast that it may one day become impossible to not plagiarize, in one way or another, even if it is not done on purpose. Could the web slowly become our enemy instead of our friend?

In Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence,” he talks about how the web is influencing us every day. From the time it was created up until this day, we are influenced by the web and what we come across on it. We look to it for quotes, books, or when we want to research a specific person. Dylan is influenced by writers such as Shakespeare and Fitzgerald. We are also influenced by the internet and the writers on it—this blog is a perfect example. Correlating this idea to the class project, how much does the web really influence us in our every day lives?