Reading And Reading: The Importance Of Literacy

John Steinbeck stated that “Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain, and if you don 't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.” (142). The first time a child really understands the concept of reading it becomes an introduction to a whole new world. When one thinks of literacy the first thing one thinks of is the ability to be able to read and write. But literacy is much more than that, to me literacy is the key to all forms of knowledge as being literate opens up the doors to all forms of learning and continued learning. Building confidence as a reader, writer, listener and speaker is transformational in a person 's life. These core abilities are used every minute of every day to live in the world. Even in society a large degree of importance is placed on literacy. The in-class text by Sylvia Scribner states “I want to depict that is, the tendency in many societies to endow the literate person with special virtues”. (16) Throughout my life literacy has played a very important role, and has evolved and manifested itself in different styles, from my introduction as a small child

Literacy also took on several different forms. My first introduction to social media came in the way of AOL instant messenger and eventually Myspace. My introduction to social networking presented a new language where acronyms like LOL (laugh out loud) became common in my written communications with others. Around this time, I also began often writing both poetry and music, which was something I did as both a hobby and a stress reliever. Writing music was a way for me to tell stories similar to rappers like Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG, who were able to paint vivid and graphic stories through their lyrics. I listened to their music quite a bit and tried to write stories like