Does mobile writing, “writing in the wild,” already happen?

I argue that it does, though we may not know it. Mobile writing takes the shape of social media, but social media has changed writing in the “wild” irreversibly. This type of writing is interactive and facilitates conversation that other forms of writing never could. Writing on a pad of paper could never match the capabilities of Twitter, FourSquare or Instagram. Those tools allow users to broadcast the same information, though seriously abridged, to the same people and more. But those tools also broadcast a much greater variety of information, including location and images especially. There is no longer a conventional writing space such as a dorm or library desk – now that space is everywhere with a WiFi signal. Yet are these tools leading people to produce content with no meaning? Assessing the content of social media is analogous to critiquing the strengths and weaknesses of a conversation. Such an activity sounds strange, and it is, but we should resist the urge to compare social media content to creative or even academic writing. Social media, though a form of writing in the wild, should never be compared to creative writing because the two are not in the same category.

Writing in the “Wild”

The closest relative of academic or creative writing that can be done in the field are blogs. Blogs are almost as user-friendly as social media, but readers expect a level of quality – and length – that social media can’t match. However, one can still write a blog online and in any location from which one could also send a Tweet. The concept of “liveblogging” has even come to popularity recently, as it combines some of the quality of a blog with the up-to-date status of a social media post. Clearly evident in liveblogging, writing quality content has moved physically to follow everywhere a smartphone or laptop can go. Wireless writing has vastly expanded the locations in which we can produce writing of high quality – thus it is premature to discredit the major shift to digital and technological writing. I welcome the move, and am encouraged by the thought that more people will be expressing themselves through digital media – while not being tethered by the ethernet cables and desktop computers of the past.