New Literacies

In response to Kevin Kelly's comment on a "2nd Gutenberg shift" I would 100 percent agree! I didn't realize how much of my life revolves around things on a screen now. I mean even my teachers either post the material online, or use powerpoints and such to teach. Now my math homework is no longer written down, but rather typed out into a computer program. You can even order food through touch screen order systems now. Just looking around my room, there is my computer, a TV, my smart phone, calculator, ipod, and a digital picture frame. But I guess the biggest thing to back up Mr. Kelly's statement is the recent hype of digital readers. I mean we don't even read books in print anymore. Instead we pick up our kindles and nooks and read books and magazines that way. Things like the ipad, which allows every necessary media device to be combined into one. Think about the amount of time teens and young adults spend in front a screen playing video games.  Do Video Games Cause Depression? In this article in the NY Times, it is suggested that children who play video games regularly are less social and therefore become more depressed. It's sad to think that we are a generation who spends so much time in front of a screen that it makes us depressed. The whole idea behind technology improving was to make life simpler and easier, but the influx of visuality may be turning our culture from the greatness it can achieve. Now I am not by any means against technology or screens, I probably check facebook three times daily on average, and I have a few shows I watch on a regular basis. I guess my fear is that as we turn more from the simple yet beautiful aspect of sitting down with a text and pouring over it, that we might lose or miss out on the knowledge behind it. The original Gutenberg shift changed the world, in a good way...so I guess I can only hope that the 2nd shift does the same.
Less than a week until I am in France!!!