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Is literacy falling to the wayside as children of the cellphone generation make their way through school? Sentences are shorter. Attention spans have lessened. Kids are incapable of understanding how to write an a statement in the active voice. (I’ll admit, I’m still struggling with that one…) I find, especially as a student in Library School, that the discussion continues to cycle around the fact that readers are no longer as sharp as they used to be–and how do we change them?…or how do we change to them?
Baggot, writing for MIT Technology Review, argues that “literacy” can no longer be defined as simply the ability to comprehend literature, but also to interpret images, sound, and react in an intelligent way.
And luckily, with today’s 2.0 interfaces, the interactive media allows a space for just this. Unlike traditional media that is directive rather than interactive, social networking and self-publishing allow media consumers to not just consume, but also to engage in the discussion:
TV and books, on the other hand, look and feel like media handed down from on high. Young people don’t have a sense of how this content is created or that they could do it themselves. They feel increasingly alienated from it, especially since they now have instant messaging, YouTube, MySpace and other media that feels more like a conversation within their own peer group.
This is it, folks. We have to stop arguing about whether or not kids are getting stupider–we have to make them starter with the tools they’re already using. If we can’t teach an old dog new tricks, let’s teach how to make the tricks adapt to our message.
Books via cell phone?
Tours via podcast?
Library updates on Twitter?
Amazon.com as an example of database use?
Step one: Try.
