Where is our literacy?

 Over the last few decades Americas literacy and ability to research has dwindled...

Google is not directly making us stupid, it is just making us a product of what its primary function. Google wants to create information that is easily and readily accessible to everyone. What is resulting is people who can not concentrate on long articles, books, or other things that take extended lengths. I like how Nicholas Carr related Google to the clock. When the clock was invented peoples days started revolving around what time it was on, not on the instincts they once used. With Google people do not spend time researching in a library or spending time reading through articles because all of the information can be in front of them in a matter of seconds. This connected to Chris Hedges “America the Illiterate” in the sense that americans are not taking the extra step to obtain information they want. Hedges describes how people are typically speaking on a 6^th grade level when only a couple decades ago the average persons vocabulary was much more expanse.

America the Illiterate was quite confusing. Mainly the facts Hedges uses, for instance he writes “There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.” If there are only 42 million American adults, how can 50 million read at a fourth of fifth grade level? I am mot sure how accurate these statistics are and it makes me question some of the writing. Hedges define literacy as being able to understand what you are reading, not just being able to say the words out loud. I do agree with him that without having a vast vocabulary is something that is rare these days. If this pattern continues our future will be filled with people who have trouble with some of the most common things.