Eunha
So
Dr.
Leake
WRIT
1122-63
01/26/13
New Generation of Literacy
Why do babies cry? There is no way
to tell why they are crying right away, but it is the way they communicate;
hunger, fear, pain, fatigue, a
need of something, and so on. It is how they express themselves until they are
able to speak. They learn the language as they grow and listen to
other people talking. They start to recognize what certain sounds or
words/sentences mean, and then replicate those terms to convey what they want more
specifically. However, for better communication with others in an intellectual manner,
our society requires the skill to be able to not only listen and speak, but
also to read and write. Centuries ago, the ability to read and write was given
only for a few people like clergy, nobles and kings, but nowadays literacy, the
ability to read and write, has become an important part of every individual’s
daily life. Whether it is to read a book, a periodical, a text message, a menu
at a restaurant, or a presentation at a meeting. Scribner explains in her
writing Literacy in Three Metaphors, “we all encounter situations requiring us
to read or produce written symbols” (9). Like myself, people go to school to
learn how to read and write. I have been reading and writing for 13 years, yet
I am still taking an English class in college to enhance my reading and writing
skill. I believe that the higher quality of literacy I have, the more effectively
and efficiently I will be able to absorb information and state my thoughts to
the others, thus become more successful in society.
Since technology has advanced, the availability of
literature resources has spread worldwide. This allows anyone to access the
information from anywhere at anytime. The Internet is one of the main advancements
that has helped literary resources to be shared faster and more extensively. “The
Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our
other intellectual technologies” (Carr 4). I moved to the United States from
Korea in 2008. It has been five years since I have been in Korea. The only way
I can keep myself updated with current events in Korea, is the Internet. I can
get messages or emails about what is happening in my friends and family’s life,
and look up what current affairs (such as political issues, entertainment news,
living culture and etc.) are taking place in their communities. I use Facebook
to read my friends’ daily life stories, post my own, and visit Korean websites
regularly to read news articles and blogs. In Why I Blog, Andrew Sullivan claims that uploading a post on
a blog is “a form of instant and global self publishing” (1). It lets people from anywhere to have an
easier access to post and read plenty of writings. Nicholas Carr writes that
the “Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the
information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind” (1). It is incredible how we can get such numerous information and news from the
other side of the world immediately, almost as if we live there.
The evolvement technology has various positive influences on our literacy
other than being a medium to stretch out our resources to the other societies. For
example, since English is my second language I use Google as a method for me to
check my words, phrases or sentences, and also use it to find answers to my
questions; ‘where is the ‘track recording enable button on Garage Band?’ or ‘Is
it okay to take Claritin D with Nasonex’, and more. It is so much faster than
going to the library to read a manual about a computer program or to call
pharmacy to check if there is any conflict to take those two medicines at the
same time. My music theory professor uploads the textbooks for his class on the
school website so the students can download them on their computer instantly. I
look up food recipes online, instead of having to purchase a hundred-page
cooking book just for the one recipe that I need for one special dinner.
One-click shopping websites like Amazon allow people to get products much
easier and faster. They are very similar to the actual walk-in stores. Customers
can view the pictures and descriptions of products, use customer service, and
compare the price, quality and the customer reviews all in one sitting. The new
technology is extremely beneficial to make an effective management of time for
the busy modern people.
The new technology has changed many things in people’s life style. People are
moving away from printed newspapers in recent years. Instead many read them
online, such as The New York Times, ABC News and Yahoo! News, because it is faster and cheaper than reading the
printed version. Who would pay $8.05
per week for The New
York Times daily home delivery, when you can pay only $3.75 per week for
unlimited access on any electronic device? People do not want to waste money or
be inconvenienced. Peoples’ life styles have changed very dramatically from decades
ago; they might not be home waiting for the newspaper every morning. They could
be on a business trip in a different state, or go on a vacation in another
country. It fits more for them to read news articles on a cell phone or a lab
top that they carry around and use to multitask.
Society, specifically the modern person, does not possess the ability to
expend energy on time consuming hobbies. People are always busy and pressed for
time working, taking care of a family, finishing school work, and so on. They
prefer to read and write simply, with a specific purpose in mind. The length
does not really matter, because even if it is an extended writing, people will read
as long as they do not lose interest in it. For those who are worried about
some one admitting “ ‘I can’t read War and Peace anymore,’ ” (Carr 2), or feel
sorry how people do not realize that “ ‘Hamlet’ can be as entertaining as ‘The Lion King’ and
perhaps as educational” (Hedges 3), I want to ask why they feel that it is so important to be able/wanting to
read these works. The world has changed; we are not living in 17th or
18th centuries anymore. Of course, I am not opposed to reading those
writings, people can read it if they want to and are interested in the
literature during those time periods. What I am wondering is if this is necessary
for the literacy in our generation. Why does our literacy have to be judged
upon those archaic pieces of literature? Scribner notes “[literacy] is a social
achievement; individuals in societies without writing systems do not become
literate. Literacy is an outcome of cultural transmission” (7). I agree that
literacy is an “outcome of cultural transmission”. The advance in technology
has brought an enormous impact on our culture and society, and caused changes
in our literacy. However, I perceive that some people determine the level of
our literacy out of context, and conclude that it is going down based on whether
we can read 17th and 18th century’s literature.
Hedges argues that “There are
over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas,
who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade
level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely
literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year” (1).
Hedges made it seem like the level of literacy in U.S. is going down, but “according
to the Census Bureau's decennial census, U.S. population is growing by approximately
3.3 million per year” (Elbel 1). In reality, 1.3 million people are becoming
literate a year, so the percentage of U.S literacy rate is actually increasing.
I am not trying to say that
all of the American’s ability to read and write has improved. As Scribner
mentions, “literacy may be increased for some and reduced for others” (11).
What I believe is that the changes in the style of our literacy caused by new
technology are not harmful, and if anything new
technologies are helping us to develop our literacy. Lunsford explains how technological developments have helped
with students’ literacy. First, “they were most interested in and committed to writing
out of class, what we came to call “life writing,” than they were in their school
assignments. Second, they were increasingly aware of those to whom they were writing
and adjusted their writing styles to suit the occasion and the audience. Third, they wanted their writing to count for
something”(1). Innovations such as the Internet and cell phones have given
students more opportunities to write and read, and those experiences are
helping increase the level of students’ literacy. For example, “the length of student
writing has increased nearly three-fold in these 25 years, corroborating the fact
that students today are writing more than ever before”, and it applies to the students
who take the advantage of the strengths of new technology to develop their
literacy.
People acknowledge the importance of literacy and
strive for more advances and development in their ability to read and write.
For those people, new technology can be a beneficial tool to achieve their
goals. They can immediately access and collect any information from different
countries using the web, expand their knowledge, and they can express their
ideas and thoughts to the world. All of this can be done easily with less time
consumption. People can find and utilize so much information; more than they
were ever able to before. It is time to change the old mindset about literacy,
and modernize it. It is up to the people to take advantage of new advanced technologies
and use them as a tool to enhance their literary capabilities, instead of
letting technology take advantage of them.
Works
Cited
Hedges, Chris .
"America the Illiterate." Truthdig.
N.p., 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/>.
Lunsford, Andrea. "Our
Semi-Illterate Youth: Not So Fast." Stanford.
N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Jan. 2013.
<www.stanford.edu/group/ssw/cgi-bin/materials/OPED_Our_Semi-Literate_Youth.pdf>.
Sullivan, Andrew. "Why I Blog
." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web.
25 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/307060/>.
Scribner, Sylvia. "Literacy in Three Metaphors." American
Journal of Education 93.1
(1984): 6. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is
Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly, July
2008. Web.
27 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/>.
"The New York Times -
Home Delivery." The New York Times -
Home Delivery. The New
York Times, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <https://nytimesathome.com/hd/205?MediaCode=W22EJ&CMP=3FQ49>
Eibel, Fred. "U.S.
Birth Rates, Population Growth, and the Environment - SUSPS." U.S.
Birth
Rates, Population Growth, and the Environment - SUSPS. SUSPS, n.d. Web. 27 Jan.
2013. <http://www.susps.org/overview/birthrates.html>.
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