Argument On Literacy

“While it is true that more books are sold today than ever, recent statistics show that only about 15% of books bought today are read. Evidently, they are of more use as furniture—coffee-table books—than as a source of information or aesthetic buzz. The statistics continue; of those that are read, less than 20% are read all the way through. The unfinished book symbolizes the state of attention spans today”. Eric McLuhan opens up his 2010 argument against technology with this quote. He seems to believe that literacy is only fully achieved through limited technology and hard copies of books. He fails to realize there is more to literacy that picking up a book defined as a ‘classic’ and reading it cover to cover. Literacy covers all spans of artistic

It also includes writing skills, and being able to put your thoughts down on paper. In order to look at the differences in literacy, it would be easy to compare generations before technology, to generations with it. To begin, past generations, such as children and teenagers in the 60’s, did not have the platforms that children in the 2010’s do now for writing. Their platforms included journal writing, book writing and homework assignments. They did not have the equipment that today’s generation has to publish their work in a non-formal manner and get critique the way that the present generation has. While Millennials do the same types of works the 60’s generation did, journal writing, homework assignments, etc., they are also broadening their horizons and sharing their work with more people. A very common form of this is in fan-fictions. This is a platform for aspiring writers, or even people whose writing have been just a hobby, to practice putting their thoughts down and get criticism from others. In these “fanfics”, young writers take celebrities or characters that they have fallen in love with, and characterize them so others can fall in love with them in the same way. They invent plots for these characters, and act out imaginative scenes that they can only wish would happen. With this platform, they

One of the most prominent forms of writing in children’s lives is essay writing and writing for school. These skills become important later on in life when these children grow up to become adults and the reports that are written are for something far more important than a mark. Past generations were limited to where they can go to have a piece of literature edited. The furthest their resources could expand would have been teachers, or anyone who was willing to edit. Today’s generation has the technology that allows them to seek help from someone who may have problems in their own writing. Computers are the first major improvement to editing. They catch initial and obvious mistakes that would otherwise go unnoticed because a person is so used to their own writing. There are many websites that help students learn how to cite the information. An example of this is Owl Perdue; it teaches people how to cite information for essays, reports. It teaches someone how to cite information from online sources, books, journals, etc. There are also many websites where students who want to learn what grammatical mistakes they make can point out what some of their downfalls are. This allows students (or anyone who wants some of their literary work edited) to learn from their mistakes. Future literary pieces will become easier to enjoy and