The merits of literacy are self-evident to the point of no longer being questioned in society. The very concept of reading and writing is a tenet of social compatibility for most cultures, having embedded itself into our social fabric to the degree where even debating whether “we should teach our kids how to read & write” is preposterous. But one doesn’t have to trace far back into our history before encountering an era where literacy was a rare skill for a very distinct minority.
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Posted by
b. on 06/25 at 01:42 PM
I agree here, but I think the root of “forget how to do things” is just not caring, taking the easy pragmatic choice and not thinking critically. I think that is the key thing that seems to be missing, we’re good at being critical of politics or the media, but we are not good at being critical of technology, and how it changes (often unconsciousnessly) how we think and what we consider important.
Perhaps the in depth kind of critical thinking I’m thinking of requires technological literacy (including programming) to even be possible.
IFTTT looks cool, but most “channels” are centralized corporate entities.
Posted by
SHaGGGz on 06/29 at 03:50 AM
That penultimate paragraph reminds me of that sci-fi short story set in a far future where humans have long forgotten how to operate the singleton that runs their society. Forgot what it’s called… But yeah, we’ve been on this path for centuries now, and it’s only going to deepen. Until cognitive neuro-implants, that is…
@b.: I think a large part of that lack of technological criticism is a result of not understanding said tech. However, I don’t necessarily agree that programming is needed to formulate useful criticisms. For instance, David Carr’s notion of “the shallows.”
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