Literacy Overload?

In her article "Accumulating Literacy: Writing and Learning to Write in the Twentieth Century" Deborah Brandt discusses how literacy learners today are faced with the challenge of absorbing new forms of literacy in addition to those passed on from past generations. Essentially, she believes that we have a "surplus" of literacy and that the main challenge surrounding the issue of literacy is not for more people to be able to learn the basics of reading and writing, but for individuals to be able to acquire, manage, and apply the vast array of literacy forms already available to them. I thought it was interesting how she pointed out that "the mass of American workers has had to shift from growing food to manufacturing goods, to principally, managing information" (652). Because of this shift in how American (and global) society functions, the demand of literacy goes far beyond the basics of reading and writing. As important as these basic skills are, they are increasingly becoming minimal forms of literacy in our information and technology rich age. This can pose a problem both for older generations who did not grow up with the same skill sets that younger generations are automatically expected to acquire, and it can also pose a problem for those who may not have access to the tools (computers, internet, cell phones, etc.) that would enable them to "keep up" with the ever-changing forms of literacy surrounding them. At the same time, the advantage of living in an information-rich age is that information is much more widely available than it has been in the past. Many people still do not have computers in their homes, but public libraries offer both the "old" forms of literacy (books) as well as free (although not as readily available were they in the home) access to newer forms of literacy through computer and internet access. Overall, I think Brandt's article points to how complicated it is to grow up and acquire literacy in the Twentieth (now Twenty-first) century. We have come a long way from the days of the one-room school house, but our advances also mean that literacy is less simple to acquire and maintain in a constantly changing world.