Becoming Illiterate

Becoming Illiterate

            Literacy in today’s society can be explained as a two edged sword. On one hand we all need to be able to read and write, and on the other we all in some way need to be “literate” with technology. As a child growing up technology was for entertainment, but not for daily life, so you didn’t have to know how to use it as frequently. Your parents could cut you off from the everyday world by sending you to your room, and they controlled most everything you were exposed to because technology was not so prevalent. Technology grows and evolves at such an astounding rate its hard for anyone that doesn’t use it on a daily basis to keep up with it at all.

            Knowing how to read and write is a tangible skill set that everyone needs in the world today. Jonathan Kozol explains this in his essay “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, when he starts off with a simple set of instructions on how to use a common household chemical. To those of us that can read it may not seem like much, but to an illiterate person it’s a different language. The main idea to this essay is that an illiterate person cannot function as an effective part of our society. He gives many close to home type examples of an illiterate person’s day-to-day life: one of a man with a broken down car on the side of the road that can call the police for help, but can’t tell them where to find him so they can come help him, another is about a woman whose child needs help with her homework in a reading class, but she cannot help the child because she can’t read. When children know more about technology than parents do there will be little that a parent actually do to protect the child or to govern what the child experiences. Now take these examples and think what it would be like if you couldn’t read. Would you be able to enjoy the internet? Facebook?

            The other part of being able to read and write is being able to apply it everyday in society. Using technology is a good example of the tangible side of this skill set. With technology evolving so quickly parents need to be able to assess what their children expose themselves to. This is a problem with today’s parents slowly becoming Technologicly illiterate. Parents are progressively becoming unable to keep up with their children’s learning curve with technology. Gadgets, computers, game consoles, phones and other paraphernalia are all compromising today’s parents’ ability to parent.

            A parents’ ability to control what a child is exposed to is a way to protect a child from parts of the world until they are strong enough to learn about it on their own. In bell hooks’ book: “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” She explains how she grew up in a family that wasn’t “poor” but that didn’t have much left over for luxury items after all seven children and parents were provided the necessary things in life. The way she was brought up has actually made her a loner and that makes it somewhat easier for her to keep track with school and not worry so much about “who would pay for pizza and drinks in the world outside.”  She speaks of modesty in the way she was raised and how children around her acted during high school and how much that differed to university.  When she decided to attend Stanford in California her parents refused to give her permission which reminded her of all the other desires she told herself would never get fulfilled. This fueled her desire even more to attend a “good” school, a school “built by a man who believed in hard work,” a place to learn. At Stanford she had been looked at as a pitied little black girl that wanted to be like the privileged.  During her years at Stanford she learned how much the privileged class actually hated and feared the working class. She found herself alienated from everyone in the school; even the other black students that she actually thought would understand her situation. Because of her beliefs and steadfast attitude bell hooks never attended her own graduation ceremonies, not because she had been scared, but because to have degrees from schools where she was treated so badly on the basis of race, class and sex did not make her proud. hooks’ parents were able to shield her from most of the bad parts of the world until she was strong enough to learn about them on her own. Parents back in that day and age didn’t need to be concerned with technology, but they did worry about racism and drugs. During the time period covered by hooks culturally literate parents influenced their child’s lives by being involved in it. They didn’t need to worry about what type of music their child was listening to or who they were idolizing because they could control all of it with some effort.

            With technology constantly bombarding people with choices and with anonymity anyone can do anything with technology without fear of being judged. Other countries are dealing with this as well, its not just America. In Todd Gitlin’s book: “Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives”, he explains that “Hollywood is the global cultural capital” because it is the majority of influence seen by the rest of the world. Even when some parts of the world hate America, you will still see them drinking Coke-Cola, and wearing Levi jeans, this just goes to show you another example of how America influences almost everyone in the world in some way. Another example he gives it the very remote tribe of Tungusians that usually are known for their bearskin rituals but have been seen wearing reversed baseball caps. He explains why in a world of differences that American media can transcend the boundaries of country, language, beliefs, race, sex and class.  The supply and demand model sufficiently explained in detail about how American images and sounds are not forced on anyone but wanted by everyone because they are viewed as fun and exciting. The demand side being explained in terms that American pop culture is not popular because of availability, but because it is a polyglot of different styles and adapts with time and influence that attracts so many more people to it. This explains why everyone wants that new gadget or to be part of that new social networking site. Demand fuels the desires of so many and forces parents to have to learn about their children’s technology. When they take a break from learning they fall farther and farther behind and eventually will become “illiterate” in today’s society and not be able to parent as effectively as the parents in the past that didn’t have to learn about technology.

            Today’s parents have to fight with movie stars, pop icons, ever changing gaming systems, clothing lines, and the envy of their entire families just to keep in the game of parenting. The whole dynamic of parenting has evolved tremendously in the last 15 years. Can you imagine what parts of our culture will push more parents towards “illiteracy” in the future? Continuing to persue literacy in our society will always drive parents to learn about their children’s lives. They will need to do this to better protect and teach their children to make healthy decisions, without creating a young adult that can’t function on their own.