Being Literate in Today’s Society
What is literacy, or what does it mean to be literate in the 21st Century? That is the main question revolving around future educators. As I walked onto campus just a few short years ago, I never thought that I would be taking a class that would dive this deep into adolescent literacy. Maybe this is showing how literate I was at comprehending the curriculum for my intended major. However, how can we answer the key question of what does it mean to be literate in the 21st Century? Being literate in today’s world is a lot different than what it used to be 10–20 years ago. 20 years ago, I was just turning 1! As a 1 year old, I did not know how to read. But, how many 1 year olds read? Probably a select few. However, not being able to read and write would probably make me illiterate, but does not being able to read and write truly make someone illiterate? You can go ask a third grader today if a kid, that might not read well, is literate. He might tell you ‘no’, but that does not rule out the possibility of them being literate. This article will display reasoning on what makes people literate, and hopefully give insight to the main question of what is literacy in the 21st Century.
In today’s world, people are becoming more and more addicted to technology than ever before. I remember growing up in the days where iPhones were inexistent. It was not until middle school when I saw someone with an iPhone. However, since the creation of that phone, many people are becoming glued to them. Along the lines of iPhones, laptops are becoming more important each year. Laptops and phones help contribute to digital literacy. According to the American Library Association, “Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” (Faleti 2017). So, how does technology tie into this definition of digital literacy, and how does it tie into literacy in the 21st Century? Being able to navigate through a phone to send a text, or even to play a game contributes to this definition of literacy in the 21st Century. No matter if the person is 100 years old and sending a text, or 10 years old and sending a text, they are both digitally literate in some way. The 100 year old might not be able to send a text as fast, or as long as a 10 year old, but that does not make them illiterate. This relates to the idea that I brought up in the previous paragraph about the third grader. One of the third graders might see that their friend takes a while to read a page in a book, and consider them illiterate, but that same kid that reads slowly is still literate. His literacy might not be as vast as the other kid, but he still is considered literate. Technology is playing a large part in shaping the definition of digital literacy in the age of the 21st Century.
Now let’s take a different look. How can something that isn’t per say ‘text’ be something tied to literacy. There was an article discussed in class that I related to well. The article was by Alvermann and Wilson. This article discussed the ways that a science teacher used the natural earth as her form of text for her students. She took her students outside to teach them a lesson on erosion. Now, how is this text, or better yet, what makes something without words text? These students had to read the earth that was around them to comprehend what was going on, and understand what erosion is and what it is not. Back in high school, my teacher did a similar thing. We went to a creek to measure the pH of the water, and do other little experiments within the water. Although I did not read a lot of material in that experiment, I was being literate because I was reading what was going on in the creek. I was measuring the pH of the water using numbers, not letters. Being able to discuss with my group, and give them a firm answer, proved that I was showing literacy in the experiment even though I did not use technology or a book to tell me what the pH of the water would be. This proves that technology might not be the only source of literacy in the 21st century.
The last topic for now is the use of social media in today’s world. As previously stated, many people today are glued to their phones. They cannot get off of them to save their lives. Major social media sites include Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. When I was growing up I remember other sites such as Myspace, and Facebook was just starting to come out. Coming from a diverse high school just outside of Clemson, there were many students that come from low income families, and then some students that come from households that bring in up to $25 Million a year. Needless to say, much of what these students put out on social media ranged from trips to extravagant destinations, to pictures of things that appealed to their group of friends. There are so many ways that social media can display literacy today, and being able to navigate through it grades your ability to be literate in the world of social media. Amber Buck’s article describes ways that students use their social media as ways of communication, and displaying thoughts on their personal life. Social media should be introduced into the classroom because it seems as if social media is the go to for students today, and being able to display their literacy of social media into the classroom could help students become literate in the 21st century classroom.
The following is a video that describes literacy in the 21st Century.
This video sums up what it means to be literate in the modern world. But let’s answer that question of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Well I think you can answer that question for yourself. Did you just read my article that I typed up and displayed on this site? Did you just understand a majority of what I presented in this article? Also, did you just navigate on a piece of technology, whether it be a laptop or cell phone, to get to my article? If you were able to do that, I think that sums up my answer to being literate in the 21st Century.
References
Alvermann, D., &Wilson, A. (2011). Comprehension Strategy Instruction For Multimodal Texts in Science. Theory into Practice
Buck, A. (2012, August). Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites. Retrieved September 21, 2018, from http://ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/RTE/0471-aug2012/RTE0471Examining.pdf
News — The Importance of Literacy in the 21st Century. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2018, from http://www.stevenson.edu/online/about-us/news/importance-literacy
