Lunsford and Scribner

After reading the rather pessimistic articles by Nicholas Carr and Chris Hedges, the encouraging information presented by Andrea Lunsford in her article “Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast” came as a surprise to me. Lunsford conducted studies in order to compare how writing habits change for individuals throughout their college years. Her findings present an interesting interpretation to the definition of literacy. Despite the increased reliance our generation has for technology-based reading, Lunsford concluded that texting and emailing has actually helped “develop a range of repertoire of writing styles, tones, and formats along with a range of abilities.” Additionally, she found that today’s students write much more and make the same amount of mistakes as the students of twenty-five years ago. An article by Sylvia Scribner presents another definition of literacy; specifically, Scribner defines the concept of literacy “in Three Metaphors.” Literacy can be thought of as functional literacy, or a level of “proficiency necessary for effective performance” in daily duties. It can also be thought of as a means of gaining power, furthering social status, or maintaining peace; Scribner calls this literacy as power. Thirdly, literacy can be a state of grace in which societies give those with literacy special privileges. Both Lunsford and Scribner help me to define literacy in a new light. Literacy, according to them, can be thought of as a skill acquired through various means and for various reasons that allows for effective written communication between social groups or institutions. Defining literacy in this manner somewhat contradicts the way Carr and Hedges present literacy. Carr and Hedges view literacy as a formal and fundamental process by which civilized society communicates. In opposition to Lunsford, Carr and Hedges claim that the changing literacy norms (i.e. our new reliance on the internet, Google, social media, texting, etc.) result in a detrimental decrease in literacy. In short, they make the argument that Google is making us stupid. I see the modern dependence on technology as a minor threat to literacy. Dependence on these addicting devices results in a society more interested in what Jennifer Lawrence wore to the Golden Globes than what Mark Twain wrote about in Huckleberry Finn. This concerns me. Without dedicated time in study our generation risks falling behind in literacy. We have placed more importance on Tweeting and texting than we have on learning. Technology is good, but too much of a good thing becomes disastrous.