Week 14: Lori's Response

This week I decided to just do my reading response a little differently than I have been doing. I couldn't help but read this week's readings through the lens of Chris' presentation argument last week that this concern about how we are exposed to too much information is something we shouldn't actually be too worried about. Because when you really think about it, how would be benefit from having less information available.

I remember in my AP World History class a boy arguing that communism wasn't actually such a bad thing when you thought about how much easier it could be to make decisions when there are less options available. On one level, this makes sense, but in reality, holistically speaking, who would definitively trade variety for convenience. How much blander would the world be?

None of the authors argue that we need less information, but it feels like it's the unspoken solution when what they're waxing poetic about the difficulty of life in our current state of information availability.

The biggest problem with which I agree from "Faking Cultural Literacy" is that it is far too easy for people to like and share articles without having read them themselves but still contributing to, even somewhat shaping, the public discourse. I think this happens all too often, not just with civilians, but also with news centers thinking publishing articles that will know will attract and incense readers and inadvertently shape how the layman sees the world and current events. It's very dangerous.

But, overall, I think that the fears underlying most of these articles is drawn out of proportion. The type of person that's described in the "Faking Cultural Literacy" article that would be found at a "cocktail party" does not represent the every man. I also think that this author assumes that everyone has this desire to be "in the know" and on top of the viral hits. It's kind of immature.

I think my favorite article this week was “7 things you need to stop doing to be more productive” because I think it displays the type of forward thinking that might become the mainstream in the future. It's the type of lessons that I honestly think students in public school would benefit form having in a required class. 

I think digital literacy as a whole is a field of study that is really important and worth studying, because being able to sift through all the bile in our growing abundance of information is something people of all ages should be able to do. Kids today I think are able to learn from an early age, so I'm not so concerned with them. I'm more concerned with how our elders will be able to adapt and stay afloat. Because as advanced as things seem now, I'm sure things might look just as different when I'm elderly.

I think all this commotion about information overload can be solved with less worry about the negatives and more focus on the strategies (literacies) that enable the best adapted to thrive.