I found an interesting connection between how new literacy technologies come about and how a popular song becomes an anthem of a generation. Literary technologies and hit song take endless hours of new ideas, reworking, scrapping, bringing back scrapped ideas, shouting, and finally coming to a compromise among the development group. Once released, the song/technology remains within a small group until it is eventually popularized. A literacy technology may take years, decades, or centuries to become popularized while a singer’s post is retweeted thousands of times in seconds, but this is still the same concept of starting with a select group and branching out from there.
Like the 77-year-old Snapchat skeptic example used in class, there is always the older generation that “doesn’t understand this new wave garbage”-much like the scholars that criticized writing and the rise of technology.
Once a technology has been accepted and used enough to become an element of every day life, it becomes natural to not notice when it is being used. Popular songs that a majority of people know such as Thriller by Michael Jackson or Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey can be heard being hummed throughout schools and the workplace-and the person humming may not even realize that they’re making sound at all.
