Just a short thought.
While we’ve been talking about the dangers of new technology usurping effective older technologies, especially in the field of composition, I also want to bring up that it can be just as dangerous to be fixated on old and traditional methods and technologies. Progress is made for a reason, and sometimes a new tool really is just plain better than an older one.
I started thinking about this when I was talking to my aunt, who still uses a thirteen-year-old piece of crap computer. She uses dial up. According to her, it takes her hours to load a single video on Youtube. She keeps this computer because she is used to it, despite the pain it causes her.
I think this applies somewhat to composition, and how sometimes we can get caught up in forms of writing we are used to and avoid newer methods, even if the newer methods are better and more painless than what we’re familiar with.