The advent of technology has negatively impacted literacy levels in our youth

Mar 18, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
No one can deny the Quantum leap of science and technology in today’s world; it is dazzling and mind-boggling.
The pace of technological development is so rapid that new machinery and gadgets are becoming outdated/old fashion overnight.
We live in a world that is at our fingertip – a touch button existence. Within the next generation (if so long) we may not have a single living person in this country who is not computer literate, and capable of mastering a cell phone; certainly by then both computer and cell phones would not be anything looking like what we are seeing now.
Children at nursery school level are meddling with them and I can’t ever remember seeing students/young persons reading a guide or booklet on instructions/functions of these devices, yet they become wizards of them in the wink of an eye simply by fingering with them. “What we have to do we learn by doing”. Aristotle.
While there are many grown-ups, even some elderly people, who are knowledgeable on the usage of modern equipment/gadgets, there are others who have for various reasons resigned themselves from the outset and have never even attempted to “hut deh head”, as we say in colloquial terms. So we are in the age of advanced science and technology that has almost completely taken over the world, yes! But what I’ve found out from my observation is that even though our youths are so sharp, slick and quick in mastering these devices, many of them are in no way – even remotely in some cases – equally skillful/competent in basic reading/comprehension; the world of literature seems completely lost and a novelty to many.
They struggle to read a sentence, cannot pronounce very simple words, so that the task of reading becomes a drudge, a painful and un-pleasurable activity.
They are at fingertip on top of the world in the use of gadgets and devices but are creeping on the other side of town in the world of literature.
And this in my estimation is easy to conclude that with all the new inventions and mechanical devices/gadgets, while science will certainly improve and prolong human existence and make work less laborious and burdensome and in spite of the great services and benefits they provide, they cannot ultimately advance human development and understanding outside of technology.
In fact, the effect of their inventions/devices has had some negative influences on our young people.
They have not contributed significantly to improved moral behaviour or uplifting conduct, since they are being exploited to the hilt for negative rather than positive reasons.
Frank Fyffe

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The advent of technology has negatively impacted literacy levels in our youth

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