Extended Essay, Again

The Information Age’s Effect on Our Literacy

Growing up in the information age I had never really questioned whether or not the Internet and other immediate information sources have affected the way that I read and write. Now I have. Obviously the information age has greatly affected the way we are a society read, write, and communicate. This is due to three main characteristics of the information age: immediacy, availability, and simplicity. These three factors have changed our culture in many ways. For example, we are a much more image-based society, which leads us to skim texts rather than “read for a deeper meaning”. These factors have also caused us to be apathetic towards information, which in turns leads us to be superficial in our communication activities. Although these changes are apparent, the question I pose is whether or not we should fret about them. On one hand we have become a society obsessed with flashy images and concise texts. This funnels us all to the same superficial believes that our minds are barraged with. On the other hand we have become a society more knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects and are very aware of our audiences.

In order to discuss these ideas there must be a clear definition of literacy established. The dictionary definition of literacy is the ability to read and write. This is a very limited definition. According to Hedges literacy is the ability “to separate illusion from truth”. This opens the idea that you much be able to not only read a text, but also be able to decipher what is fact and what is fiction. From Thompson’s viewpoint we are becoming more literate because today we not only “think of writing as good or bad”, rather we think of it as “knowing who you’re writing for and why you’re writing”. This idea extends literacy to include the audience’s ability to understand what we are trying to communicate. The definition of literacy that I believe to be the most encompassing is this: literacy is the ability to decipher the meaning of texts, write in an analytical way, and communicate to a particular audience. This definition not only includes the relatively easy process of reading and writing, but also the ability to understand and decipher the ideas conveyed in a text. The communication factor of this definition allows for literacy to also include the ability to not just convey ideas, but also convey them in a way that your particular audience can decipher.

Having established a definition for literacy allows for my expansion upon the reasons behind the change in literacy. In Melanie Wallendorf’s article, “Literally Literacy” she states “literacy is typically regarded as an individual skill that tends to remain stable in adulthood.” I believe this to be untrue. Literacy, as she states, is an “interaction between culture and the mind”. This interaction causes each individual’s literacy to change throughout his or her lifetime due to the cultural experiences. This is evident in our culture. Due to technological advances such as the Internet and television our culture has become very impatient. We expect our information to be presented here and now. This forced news and media companies to provide our information in an immediate fashion. Which lead to the immediacy of information we have today. Availability has also been enhanced by the emergence of technology. Now rather than waiting for the 6 o’clock news we can surfing the web for the news stories we want. These two faucets of information have pushed our information to be very simplistic. Because we want our information to be immediately available newspapers and other sources of news are forced to “dumb it down”. They must appeal to the masses in order to stay in business. So rather than doing in depth stories on important news they produce stories about car wrecks and drug deals. These flashy stories draw people to watch the news. But is this really news? I don’t believe so. News should be facts about relevant stories in the world, such as wars, international affairs, and other such ideas. Stories that are more in depth force us to open our minds to new ideas. This new ideas allow us to become “literate”. Since these stories are rarely produced we are exposed to the superficial “news” that gets good ratings and entertains the masses.

These ideas of the immediacy, availability, and simplicity of our news media has greatly affected our literacy. For instance, when newspapers were the only form of news available people read the whole paper. Taking in all the ideas presented and deciphering the news of the day. Now that newspapers are on the wane and we primarily use television and the Internet to gather information we tend to be “water skiers” on the “sea of words”. In other words we never decipher texts for a deeper mean. We don’t “scuba dive” into our readings. The type of reading we do today leads us to take ideas at face value. Delving deeply into ideas is somewhat of an alien idea in our mainstream culture. The lack of this “deeper reading” has forced our society into an image-based age. Our information is acquired through flashy images and catchy tag lines. While flashy images and catchy tag lines are great ways to catch an audience’s attention, they should not be the meat of the information we are presented as they have become. Because these things have become our main source of information, our society has learned to loathe the idea of reading for a “deeper meaning”. We have become content to accept the flashy images presented and fear the idea of having to shift through ideas for the true meaning. This fear has led us to be superficial in our readings and writings. And this superficiality has spread into our everyday life. When we read texts for face value, we read people at face value. So the only way to make a good impression is to present yourself in a manner that “the other America” can understand and relate to. This is best exemplified in politics. As Hedges stated in “America the Illiterate”, “American political campaigns…eschew real ideas and policy for cheap slogans and reassuring personal narratives.” Also in that article Hedges shows the diminishing literacy through the reading level of the political debates. “During the 2000 debates, George W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6.7) and Al Gore at a seventh-grade level (7.6).” In comparison to the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas debates where Lincoln spoke at an 11.2 level and Douglas at a 12.0 level. This difference accentuates the trend toward superficiality in our society. The fact that our political system is forced to “dumb it down” draws attention to the fact that our society has become very superficial in its communication.

The change is our society is apparent. There has been a shift toward image-based information that has caused us to become superficial in some regards. The question is: Should we try to change? On the one hand this trend has been “dumbing us down” for years. By becoming less “literate” we have become blind to media tricks. We take headlines for fact. We no longer question what we read or see on television. We are puppets to anything and everything that the media tells us. When we accept everything that our media presents as fact we lose the ability to think for ourselves. We rarely can synthesize ideas to form our own conclusions. We are generally presented two sides and must pick between the two. This is not how the world is. The world is not only black and white; it is black and white and every shade in between. By giving up our right to think for ourselves through our decline in literacy we are giving up our basic human right. On the other hand the changes have not all been so bleak. We have become able to read more simply because there is so much more availability. We are exposed to millions upon millions of ideas, if we choose to be. We are more aware of our audiences and our purposes. But are these positive changes enough to sacrifice the ideas that we can produce from within our own minds if we would only read more deeply? I think not.

We, as a society, have changed due mainly to technological advances. The Internet and television have given us immediate availability that was only in our imaginations years ago. These advances have given us opportunities to expose ourselves to many ideas, but have also given us the opportunity to access flashy images and personable catch phrases. These flashy texts have directed us to be “jet skiers” rather than “scuba divers”. In my opinion this is an almost tragic trend. We as people in society need to push back against the superficiality that has presented itself due to our choices of information sources. We need to read whole texts, decipher those texts, and come out with our own ideas on the text. By doing this we allow ourselves to stimulate our minds and form our own unique views of the world. We can once again begin to more literate. We will be able to decipher texts more easily, write analytically, and communicate to any audience that we choose.

To sum it all up, the information age has changed our literacy. It has made it more available, but also more simplistic. It has allowed us to skim rather than read for a deeper meaning. It has caused a type of superficiality that must be pushed against. For if we allow this trend to continue we will be at the mercy of the media industry to tell us how to think. But we can very easily push back. By taking the time to read whole articles, watch full newscasts, and analyze all texts we can reverse this trend and in the end become a much more free thinking, educated, and literate society. A freethinking educated and literate society will, in the end, be the most successful society.