bLoG ocho

            How does one define the term “literacy”? For such a small word, it can take on a number of meanings. It seems that it would be very easy for someone to write numerous pages defining “literacy”, explaining why it is important and what it means within society.

            I find that Scribner does an excellent job in doing exactly this. Although it is an academic piece, he is able to break it up into three different aspects in which the audience can relate to. The first is “literacy as an adaptation”. It is essentially the fundamental skills a reader must have in order to succeed in everyday life. Hedge’s article is similar to this aspect of Scribner’s article because both authors are attempting to stress the importance of understanding text beyond a basic level. The second is literacy as power. In other words, this is saying the power a literate society has to make a change. Again, one can relate this back to Hedge’s article, specifically the part on the grade level at which presidential debate can be understood at.  A more literate society can make better-educated decisions when it comes to voting for a political leader. The third is literacy as a state of grace. This is probably my favorite metaphor of the three. Literacy allows a reader to expand on a complex thought and from that develop opinions and morals.

            Thompson’s article does an excellent job presenting what social media can do for literacy. He sites a respectable study conducted by Professor Lunsford of Stanford University. However, I am a bit skeptical of this study. By only analyzing by writing college students the study is only specific to one demographic of our society. I would hope that college students would be able to identify and write to a specific audience because America would have a serious problem if our college students could not accomplish this. I think if the study looked at a different demographic, like people of lower socio-economic status who can’t afford college, then maybe the results would be much different and would correlate to Carr’s idea of internet use. But don’t get me wrong here; I think the study is correct in the fact that our literacy habits are evolving. However, I think it is evolving for those who are interested in and fairly involved in academia.