Technology and Writing

Hey ya’ll,

So I went to the Kirschenbaum lecture on Wednesday, and it was pretty cool.  The talk had a lot to do with forensics in computers, how a file can track changes, and how much that would open up the history of a particular book being written.  I wanted to take a moment to pick everyone’s brains though.

To what extent do you think technology has impacted the writing process itself?  Many authors now write continuously in one file; I know that personally I have to think very hard to avoid having one file open, and rewriting over previous drafts.  In class we discussed how technology has impacted the way we read and process information.  In addition to the question about drafts, do you think hyper-attentiveness has also snuck into the writing process?  Writers can now write on a computer, and do all of their research through google.  Between many writers no longer keeping their old drafts but instead writing over them, having easy access to information they no longer have to physically find in a library or archive, the shirt in the types of books being published, and more distractions and feedback than ever, do you think the way writers write, even the writing process itself, has changed?