Final Essay #2: Criticism through the Digital Age

Traditionally, academia has been commonly seen as an exclusive to digital culture. With the digital age upon us however, there is need to adjust a traditional academic setting in order to utilize the digital culture in an optimal way. There are many benefits that come from digital culture in advancing and enhancing one’s education. One aspect of digital culture doing this, is through the criticism that students are instructed to demonstrate in a literary way. This includes criticism of published works set to be studied in a course, or any other literary cannon.

Traditionally, a student demonstrates literary criticism through an academic paper that they would submit to their professor. Unless able to share with classmates or other people, the student’s criticism is only read by the sole professor. After a submission to the teacher, it may take a long time for the student to have their paper returned back to them and receive feedback on their writing. 

Looking at literary criticism with the digital culture lens allows an individual to see the benefits that come from other web-based resources to produce criticism, other than the standard academic paper. Blogging is a great example of expressing criticism. Blogs are not only for digital diary usage or posting culinary creations. People are able to post their criticism on the web and receive immediate feedback from other web users. The Asylum is an example of a literary criticism website that is done informally out of a classroom setting. 

Through blogging, various people are able to review your criticism, as opposed to only the professor. This enables a student to see the purpose behind assignments in a greater scheme; that it’s not just another essay to write in order to get a score, but it’s to enlighten the mind by demonstrating critical thinking and writing abilities. Another benefit that comes from posting online is the ability for other users to provide commentary and feedback on your posted blog. Through this resource, students can receive varied viewpoints on a matter and obtain helpful direction from viewers that comment. This is almost immediate and can be developed into the criticism if desired. 

Another form of criticism through digital culture is curating through a curation tool, such as Pinterest. This is a method that is a different kind of criticism, because while it may not be traditional, it allows a student to learn how to filter and consume content. Curation tools demonstrate criticism through the user curating what they deem is noteworthy and significant to a subject. It expressed someone’s appreciation of a subject, as well. This can be seen depending on how much a user has curated on the subject, and if it is positive or negative curation. 

Criticism can take many forms in digital culture. Using web-based avenues such as blogs and curation tools allows a student to become more in control of what they want to critique and how to critique it.