P8. A Glimmer of Hope?

The main difference between Thompson’s article on the new literacy and Hedges and Carr’s article is the positivity in Thompson’s article that is pretty much non-existent in the other two. Thompson makes the claim that the Internet is actually improving our nation’s writing ability because people are writing more frequently online than ever before. There is actual statistical research to back up these hopeful claims. After reading Hedges and Carr’s articles about how dumb we’ve become as a society, it was refreshing to explore the other side of the ongoing agreement: is the Internet helpful or harmful? (A question to which I would still answer both.) However, I am slightly skeptical of what Thompson is saying. Yes it’s true we do a lot more writing out of school now via Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc. but what concerns me is does creating a Facebook status really count as a legitimate piece of writing? How about a 125 character Tweet? I mean how much creativity is really necessary there? Nonetheless, social media is forcing people to write something, no matter how short, and that I believe is better than not writing at all.

And now for the heavy stuff presented abut literacy and metaphors. What I liked about Scribner’s articles was that she actually made the effort to try and define the word “literacy” instead of just blaming technology as the reason rates of illiteracy are on the rise. Although Scribner defines the word “literacy” in several ways in all fourteen pages of the article, I still believe that term may never be accurately defined or generalized. Yes I agree that literacy is power and social. She makes a very valid, non-biased argument unlike some of the other author’s we’ve read. I agree with Scribner that the term “literacy” has different meaning for people all over the world. Do people in remote tribes of the jungle really need to know how to read the paper or understand a presidential debate? Yes I know this example is an extreme case but I think more people need to look into both sides of the argument before asserting their opinions.