Thoughteracy for All

I got my much anticipated issue of Ubiquity this week and both my Dad and I found M.O. Thirunarayanan thesis that information and communications technologies will slowly but surely initially diminish and then eventually altogether do away with peoples¹ reliance on soon to be obsolete skills such as reading and writing. See https://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v7i05_thoughteracy.htm.

What follows is a teaser:

"Being illiterate in a society that revolves around the written word certainly has serious consequences for those who cannot read and write. After reviewing data from the 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey, Kirsch, Jungeblut, Jenkins, and Kolstad (1993) note that:

  •  Individuals demonstrating higher levels of literacy were more likely to be employed, work more weeks a year, and earn higher wages than individuals demonstrating lower proficiencies. . . . .
  •  Adults in the lowest level on each of the literacy scales (17 to 19 percent) were far more likely than those in the two highest levels (4 percent) to report receiving food stamps. In contrast, only 23 to 27 percent of the respondents who performed in Level 1 said they received interest from a savings or bank account, compared with 70 to 85 percent in Levels 4 or 5.
  •  Nearly half (41 to 44 percent) of all adults in the lowest level on each literacy scale were living in poverty, compared with only 4 to 8 percent of those in the two higher proficiency levels.
  •  On all three literacy scales, adults in the higher levels were more likely than those in the lower levels to report voting in a recent state or national election."

Is thoughteracy in your future. Sound off...

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