The average American’s literacy has become a rising concern in the past decade, and it should be. Having the ability to read, write, and understand language is necessary to function in today’s society. Language is used on a day to day basis. Being illiterate in society today could be detrimental to how you live your life. According to foxnews.com, about one in 20 adults in the United States is illiterate in the English language. That is around 11 million people who struggle in everyday tasks that require reading skills. Some doctors, professors, and writers blame this shocking statistic on technology. Today, new technologies allow us to be entertained almost instantly on the internet and in the palm of your hand on smart phones. Credited authors and writers trust that books and other reading materials are being replaced by entertainment through the internet, television, and video games. Last year one in four Americans did not read a book. One fourth of the population depended on technology for entertainment. Writers and authors believe this statistic is a key reason to illiteracy in America. Illiteracy could also be caused by lack of education, whether it be dropping out of high school or never earning a college degree. Clive Thompson, the author of “the New Literacy”, thinks otherwise. He believes that the internet is making us communicate, read, and write more than ever. Internet sites such as Social Networks, newspapers, books online, and search engines all require reading and writing. The statistics showing a rise in illiteracy in America may be influenced by another factor other than the internet. The survey of our class’s internet habits suggests that the internet and video games are not just mindless entertainment.
Viewing my recent history on the hard drive of my computer is comprised of a variety of websites. Sites I visited most often included Social Networks like Stumbleupon.com and FaceBook. Websites I go visit to watch videos were Netflix and YouTube. I also visited some web pages to play video games. Websites where I stay up to date with current events were msn.com, Comcast.net, and bbc.com. Discussion during class suggested that my fellow scholars also visit the same websites and some which I have never heard of. Websites that were viewed most often by my classmates and I were social networks, news sites, and web pages for entertainment. Social Networks require reading and writing and allows you to converse with someone through text. Some people may argue the text language can be harmful to a person’s literary skills. I do use some phrases when texting on a cell phone and chatting online to save time, and I feel that it hasn’t affected my writing skills at all. Besides, nobody would ever use mnemonic devices in a professional setting. Clive Thompson explains, “As for those texting short-forms and smileys defiling serious academic writing? Another myth” (Thompson 1).Social networks do require some literary skills to operate. Most websites students visited were to read about their interests, current events, and politics. I personally do most of my reading on the internet. I haven’t read a book in quite some time. StumbleUpon allows me to read articles that inspires and interests me. Clive Thompson suggests that online entertainment can be considered “New Literacy.” New Literacy can be described as reading and writing through video games, blogs, and social networks. Thompson writes “But it's also becoming clear that online media are pushing literacy into cool directions. The brevity of texting and status updating teaches young people to deploy haiku-like concision. At the same time, the proliferation of new forms of online pop-cultural exegesis—from sprawling TV-show recaps to 15,000-word videogame walkthroughs—has given them a chance to write enormously long and complex pieces of prose, often while working collaboratively with others” (Thompson 2). Doctors and writers suggest that video games online are unhealthy could be a cause of illiteracy in the United States. Flash games and shooters may fit that argument, but role playing games like World of Warcraft are a different story. World of Warcraft is an online MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game with thousands of hours of play time. The game is very popular with over 10.3 million players online every single day. Some may argue that this video game is even addicting, and people may spend way too much time on it. This may be true, but the game requires a player to have common literary skills to complete challenges and quests. This game easily has well over millions of characters of text within the game and requires players to answer questions and solve puzzles. I personally do not play any online games, but there is no way they can be detrimental to a person’s literary skills, there is just too much reading and conversing within these games.
The average American’s literacy levels have been decreasing since technology has been put into play. Hedge explains that presidential candidates have been continuously speaking in a lower reading level every election. The reason being is that America’s average reading level is decreasing. George Bush spoke at the reading level of a sixth grader, while Al gore spoke at the level of a seventh grader. They read at this level to help the public understand their political goals. President Bush won the election even though he read at a lower reading level. It may be possible that the average American’s reading level ranges between and sixth and seventh grader. In Scribner’s “Literacy in Three Metaphors” he describes the reading level of the average American. In 1952, a census considered six years of school to be the minimal literacy threshold. Not all Americans graduate College or even High School, a major contribution to the average reading level of an American. The numbers do show that America is becoming illiterate as years pass, but the internet is not to blame.
High School completion is required for a job application and is necessary to function in society. High School dropout rates have been on the decline since 1972. A High School diploma allows for a person to get a minimum wage job. Going to college and challenging yourself while earning a degree will score you a job that requires a higher level thinking than that of a job you would get with a High School diploma. Education and job requirements are major factors to a person’s literacy. A minimum wage job, say, construction, requires a low reading level. Physical labor doesn’t require you to read or write. Repetitive tasks dull the mind. Internet usage is on the rise, and the average American’s literacy is decreasing. Chris Hedges, in “America the Illiterate” explains, “there are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year” (Hedges 1). Both these statistics are on the rise, which is why it could be thought you can illiteracy on internet usage, but the internet is much more than just mindless surfing. Some many argue that the internet is distracting towards school work, that video games consume too much, and T.V. is monotonous entertainment.
In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google making us Stupid?” he explains that the internet is making research easier for us. Instead of going to the library and reading a book to find the answer to a question you can instantly find it using Google. In my own opinion I believe that Google is making us smarter. You spend less time researching and more time answering your question. You can also get multiple viewpoints on the subject at hand within seconds. Rather than having to go through five or six books, you can click on the hundreds of links to help you with your question (not all websites that Google suggests are credible though). You can even create your own question on the internet through blogging websites, and have people post their own opinions. Clive Thompson describes the internet as a “literacy revolution”. Thompson writes, “I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," she says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions” (Thompson 1). I completely agree with Thompson’s explanation. The digital age brought with it a literacy revolution. Blog websites, social networks, reading books online, news websites all require reading and writing skills, and we are challenging our literary skills every day we log on. In the movie, “The Social Network”, Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend says “The internet’s not written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in ink.” The internet is a permanent archive of culture, literacy, and entertainment.
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