I’m Not Downloading That

The adoption of new literacy technologies, specifically as outlined in Baron’s article “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology”, is a topic that I find particularly intriguing. I recently experienced the adoption of a new literacy technology at one of my jobs. I am a sales advisor at Topshop on Michigan Avenue. They recently implemented a new app called Shyft to have a way of communicating with staff. The app allows users to view their schedules, to post shifts for trade, to accept shift changes, for managers to approve scheduling changes, it allows messaging between all members of the staff, and has a dashboard where the staff can post storewide notices and information. The adoption of this technology would be the “invention” stage that Baron discusses in his piece. He also writes that “the new technology begins to affect older technologies as well” (Baron 2) As the app became ubiquitous among the staff, upper management no longer felt the need to post notices in the elevator or on the bulletin boards, because it was readily available within the app. Essentially, the app prompted our workplace to discard our older means of communication as we became more reliant on the application. Most of the staff was resistant to downloading the app at first. We didn’t think that it would as useful as it turned out to be and we didn’t think that its functions would streamline our previous means of communication where we traded phone numbers in order to trade shifts and communicate with one another. The functions of the app made it indispensable to the workplace, because it gave a wealth of different opportunities for communication. Our staff is now dependent upon the app and don’t ever question its importance to our workplace.