If a child can read and write but not use a computer by the time they graduate from college, then can they really be considered literate in the modern world? This is a question that I’ve been thinking about since reading Baron’s piece on pencils. Imagine if someone could not use a pencil and yet could read and write with a quill and ink; would we consider them literate?
Literacy in the modern world means more than being able to read and write; with developing technologies, it means being aware of what is now being considered part of literacy. This idea can be confusing but one look at how the computers have entered into the public sphere shows that any new technology, no matter how strange it appears initially can become common knowledge. Countless college students now use laptops in order to write their term papers, do research, and communicate with professors outside of class. All of this is despite the confusion among older populations, people who may have seen no promise in the rise of this strange technology.
In the modern day, if one cannot effectively use a computer at work or in school, they are at a severe disadvantage. Those coming from a low-income background without access to the public computers and entering into the public-school system have a technological learning curve which they must overcome, whereas their peers may have fewer problems. With such a value placed on proficiency with computers, then, it is a wonder that we don’t consider such a skill as a new form of literacy. Those with the skill of reading how a computer works, or its language (not code), are able to utilize its writing software, its communication abilities, and its online search engines. In a very noticeable way, computers have offered up a new avenue that we might consider literacy.
