Letter: Focus on text is misplaced

Pic from https://diatomenterprises.com/edtech-trends-2023/

The “post literate age”, as described by Daniel Randall (and James Marriott) (Solidarity 764), seems to me highly overblown. This not to suggest that nothing is amiss but to question the premise that reading, or even reasoning, amongst the population is reduced and for some no longer takes place. Of course there is a crisis and it is largely due to the rise of social media but to invent a term and to try and pin the blame to it is to miss the point.

There is a long history to literacy going back not just centuries but millennia and just because it started with simple drawings in caves should not lead us to denigrate the expressions of early ancestors. Bringing this point up to date, we should not underestimate the kinds of symbolism that social media gives rise to (moving image, podcast etc) that does not involve text. None of this is mentioned by Daniel Randall, who might lead us to believe (to misquote a famous philosopher) “there is nothing beyond the text”.

The focus upon text is misplaced but even more so is the apparent emphasis upon text on paper, as opposed to on screen. There are issues of availability tied to each – persistence on paper, accessibility on screen – but surely text is text. Save for technical details, a text – whether newspaper article or book – can be read on screen as well as on paper, to be absorbed and reasoned upon in just the same way.

Whilst the general population is bombarded day and night by established press with conspiracy and misinformation, both on paper and on screen, it is time the political left moves beyond traditional media methods and engages. Perhaps this is what Daniel Randall is trying to say, but with shortcomings in his overall analysis.

Sericus (a former teacher and edtech specialist)