The world of today is experiencing a historical change in the nature of literacy as digital multi-media resources enter it. Such changes would be do to the creation of the World Wide Web, e-mail, text messaging, and digital encyclopedias, as well as many other resources. Technology, however, is changing faster than our ability to evaluate its impact on literacy. Some have argued that the Internet, itself, is the greatest setback to human communication skills. That is where children were once trained to appreciate language, grammar, etc, today we are pushed toward speed and stylized text. Though our language continues to morphed into a simpler style, may be this is by means a good thing for the more simpler one's sentence is the more people will be able to understand what is being stated.In addition to helping people understand each other in a simpler way, from these advancements in technology, the public is given the ability to find more information about an even larger variety of subjects to look under. As well as for those who have previously shied away from reading books, have found the Internet to be by means more entertaining way of reading in some cases. Tools, like graphics and hyper text, take reading from a passive to active experience. Clearly, more writers, as well as more perspectives, can be heard by even more people. All of this could also be encouraging interests in reading and writing to a broader segment of the population.
There are however some down sides and concerns. The first that comes to mind would be a loss of depth that one gets from reading classical books. Furthermore, the volume of information that is available tends to change our value systems from quality to quantity. This can result in declining attention spans and the lack of true interpretation of the information refined as we get caught up in an on going search for more information. The graphic nature of digital writing tands to put more emphasis on good looks rather than good writing. The ease of writing along with technological short cuts such as spell check and grammar check result in a lessoning of rereading the original material and can result in an overall decline in quality. Furthermore, there is an inherent erosion of the English language as short forms and digital speaking become more and more prevalent. In addition, E-mail has altered the struture of the letter as a communication tool, and brought with it a whole new set of conventions, even etiquette. As for handwriting, it is becoming a lost art. In short people now write more like they speak. Finally, the emerging technologies that turn text into synthesized speech could even lead to an overall decline in actual reading skills.Are we experiencing a decline in literacy? Probably not but for sure we are experiencing a redefinition. Traditionally literatacy has been defined as the ability to read, write, and even spell. This definition is not inherently void in the electronic era, but definitely is changing or expanding. The Internet is still textual based, but it is requiring new sets of skills. It combines text, sound, and complex visual aids making it extremely effective in transmitting ideas to a large diverse audience.
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