A New Age of Literacy

Thinh Bui

Final Draft

New Age of Literacy

Audience: New advances in technology, such as the web and smart phones, have made the older generation feel nervous. Scared of how it is changing the younger generation and what it can potentially do in the future, many people are perceiving technology as a negative thing. Writers such as Chris Hedges and Nicholas Carr are among them. They are skeptical and afraid of the unknown. By depicting the web with all of its’ different forms of social media and search engines, I am able to provide them with the basis of my counter argument that the web is not slowly deteriorating our literacy skills but rather it is evolving it into a new and better type of literacy.

Through new technology and the web, we have created a new way to interact and socialize with other people. Because of technology, we are able to keep in touch with people from across the globe. Facebook is very popular with the younger generation. It is a social network that allows people to keep their friends updated on what they are doing by uploading photos, updating their status, posting messages on their friends’ walls, and chatting with their friends. Twitter, a social networking site for micro-blogging, allows people to send instant updates to their network and follow people of interest to them.  

Before social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, writing was non-existent outside of the classroom, which led Andrea Lunsford, a writing and rhetoric professor at Stanford University, to believe that, “Technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions” (Thompson 1). With technology, we are able to incorporate more writing into our daily lives as well as mastering kairos, which is the ability to “assess their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across” (Thompson 1). Lunsford found that students are really good at tailoring their message to fit their audience and using different tones and techniques to state a point. Technology and social networking sites are forcing the younger generation to write more and in a variety of ways. For example, a tweet can have a maximum of 140 characters, which means that we have to be very concise in our communication. Technology and the web are changing the younger generation’s style of writing, but with that change it is also allowing us to write more and learn new ways to write on our own.

Although the positive aspects of technology and the web are apparent, there is still skepticism towards the effects of technology and the web. The older generation believes that if something is not broken then it does not need fixing. Although not everyone from the older generation is closed minded, I found this to be true with my friend’s grandmother. Her house is filled with old things like cassette players, antenna televisions, and even out dated couches. She does not want to change the way she is living because she is so comfortable and use to how things already are. Hedges and Carr feel that the traditional way of reading and writing had little to no flaws so there is no reason to change it. Their fear of the new outcome due to technology and the web is blurring their vision to see the positive effects. If they were less scared and more willing to change, they will see that there are a lot of things that can benefit them and make their lives easier. For example, instead of spending countless hours in the library searching through books for information for your research paper, you can quickly get the information online. The Internet has eliminated the time a student would waste flipping through pages after pages of books and replaced it with a quick and simple search on the web that contains everything a student needs. The endless amount of information that can be obtained by a click of a button has changed the way we retrieve literature and how we write.

            Unlike the older generation, we yearn for change and like to do what is in style. We are comfortable with change. Experimenting and adapting to changes are great qualities that we have acquired because it allows us to approach new things with caution but without the fear to hold us back. We are able to look past the unknowns and take in all the exciting new ways of the web. Without the fear that possesses the older generation, we are able to take advantage of everything that technology and the web has to offer.

Nicholas Carr’s concern about the effects of technology and the web on our reading ability is a fair argument. Reading has strayed away from the traditional sense not only by changing from paper form to electronic form, but in other aspects as well. He has found that the web and technology has caused people’s inability to be a “deep reader.” Skimming and power browsing have become more prominent.  These arguments may be true, but there are advantages to skimming. Being able to skim through long articles and getting the important points is truly a skill. It is challenging to process the content while skimming. This new skill, which was caused by technology and the web, has benefited countless students. I have been assigned long readings by professor and told to skim and take the most out of it. Also, due to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, we have become fixed on reading short materials since we constantly read updates and tweets, which results in us reading more than we have ever had. The exposure to these social networking sites increases our total reading time. Technology is changing the way we read and write but the change that is occurring is increasing the amount of time that we actively read and write. Therefore this change is promoting us to be better readers and writers.

Although, my web usage, along with my classmates’, supports Carr’s argument about short attention span, it illustrates that the web is surrounding the younger generation with more things to read and write without them thinking it is an assignment, meaning that they are involuntarily enjoying reading and writing. There are so many distractions on the web, making it almost impossible to avoid them. By wasting our time on social networking sites and being distracted by other sites, we are spending more time reading and writing, which I see as beneficial since we are getting more exposure to literacy.

The web holds great wonders but you, the older generation, are too frightened to absorb everything it has to offer. It has an endless amount of information that is easily accessible. Many believe that it is too much information for anyone to handle.  Carr states a person will have, “information overload, that is instantly available (Carr 7).” He believes the quick fix of information is unmanageable and will lead to the destruction of literacy since we can obtain information without much effort. Any questions that we may have can be answered instantly.  For example, if your recipe book has been misplaced or lost, instead of trying to remember how to cook the perfect pot roast or trying to contact a relative to see if they know the recipe, you can simply turn on the computer and search for a pot roast recipe. Although thousands of recipes will show up, it still provides you with a quick response. You might even find a new recipe for pot roast that tastes much better than your original recipe. The ability of the web is boundless. 

In conclusion, technology and the web have transformed literacy to a different level. Lunsford states, "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization” (Thompson 1). Technology and the web has made us become better writers by teaching us kairos without us ever being aware of it and it has made writing more common outside of school-related activities, forcing us to interact and improve our writing styles. We have learned new methods of reading, including skimming and power browsing. The older generation’s assumption that the web is slowly deteriorating our ability to be literate is the opposite of what the web is actually doing for us. It has created a new type of literacy that has been formed by a faster way to get information, unlimited amounts of information from a click of a button, and more encounters with literacy. The older generation is missing out on the wonders of the new technology and the web. All they have to do to benefit from it is let go of the fear that possesses them and embrace the change.

Work Cited

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" TheAtlantic.com. July 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/>.

Thompson, Clive. "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy." Wired.com. 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson>.