Idk what the term is but we need something like illiteracy for people who can like, read words but whose ability to interpret facts and context has been completely destroyed by the internet
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
idk bro my parents were cooked by cable news so I don't think this is a new phenomenon. My mother in law leaves the TV on all day and just blurts out whatever she thinks she heard on that screen. Nobody had a problem with this behavior until the idiots started voting for Trump
I’ve learned that you have to put all multiple question emails in separate bullets rather than paragraph style. It’s the only way people understand there are multiple things to respond to.
Every once in a great while, someone will respond with “see responses in red below” and there will be an answer in red next to each question. I generally offer to take them to lunch, or if they’re not local, send flowers.
"hypoliteracy" meaning kinda "under-literate". i first applied it to architecture studio where much of what passes for "research" is looking at expensive picture-books
I have heard the term aliteracy applied in education. It refers to kids who CAN read, but they don’t, and they never build critical components of comprehension. I think it applies here.
I can read words, and I *think* I can still interpret facts and context, but I can't really read long-form writing anymore, due to the internet having destroyed my attention span... would that fit under the same term, or would it get a different one?
Understanding context requires additional knowledge and interpretation requires a set of skills. Both are sort of atrophied when you (passively) watch a lot of videos without/instead of reading. I think you can learn those things from videos but written works do a better job…
I’d honestly been thinking about it for some time b/c my research focuses on over-valuing of texts in re classical antiquity. Lots of “functional” literacy, low reading & writing rates b/c class (& gender) restricted.
Your term “influenced” led my brain to “dysfunctional” & finally 💡 , lol.
the revival of critical thinking courses in public school curriculum is not on any agenda that I can see, quite the opposite with the current trend to destroy the US university system. Giving it a term won't cut it. Bring back intelligent leadership to the Dept of Ed
If I remember right, functional illiteracy was knowing how to read *literally* but not recognizing references. These people read & recognize (certain) references but in a twisted manner, so seems like this would be *dysfunctional literacy.*
“Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.” ~Herbert Gerjuoy (quoted in Alvin Toffler’s 1970 book, Future Shock)
Fun fact: the "a" prefix (such as in agnostic (not knowledge) or apathy (not feeling)) is basically the same as the "i" prefix (illiterate is literally "not letters"). You're mixing Greek and Latin cognates.
I think your choice of words is interesting and apropos: consuming media. The written word becomes something to consume rather than something to be interrogated, engaged with, to enlighten…
I’ve also been ruminating about low/high context communication. Social media is often a low context mode of communication but the topics often require a high context type of engagement. I haven’t really thought it through yet but it’s floating around my head. :)
see I just thought about this, and while Nemik’s manifesto does feature text, he also specifically records an audio narration. so this would actually fit pretty well into the idea that most people engage via audio, and can’t actually read text. Nemik just provides text for those who can
I've not bothered to verify it but I've seen other nerds say the lack of paper in star wars is a very intentional part of world building. Since it's harder to change a physical object than a digital object, this is a very convenient avenue of information control
That’s touched on in Andor. They rely on archaic and difficult to use tech, because everything modern is designed for convenience that also locks you into the Empire’s surveillance ecosystem.
Yeah I know, the part I'm unsure about is it being an initial choice or post-hoc rationalization because it doesn't feel like a very Lucas thing to me. He was more concerned with a vague sense of mysticism, but also you get the occasional "there are no bras in space" so I don't know
Interestingly not the case with Middle Earth. There are bookshelves in Bag End, and there's even a Shire postal service. That's what you get when a professor creates the world.
Developing a theory that all written text in SW is actually in our alphabet, and it only *looks* screwy because we’re seeing it through illiterate characters’ POVs
Pretty sure that's the case. I looked up aurek besh for a sw rpg campaign years ago and it seemed at least back then, it was just letter shapes that were different between ab and American English.
“This would be like a real life Empire going and burning down all the colleges and schools and killing all the teachers. The academy, the keepers of literacy would be gone. And once that happens, it’s easy for a tyrannical empire to take over, to control the information.”
I call those people unscathed by knowledge. They think they know something, but it went flying past them and they don't even know what shape the blur is.
Similarly, people take a fundamentally non-reasonable approach to anything we build that flies. We fundamentally treat it as magic, rather than a machine. I saw this when two planes scraped their wings together at an airport about three weeks back. (1/2)
(2/2) People were blaming the FAA, Boeing, and the business of aviation in general, and not the dude who was actually moving the plane around what is essentially a very tight parking lot for vehicles with a huge horizontal wingspan.
In the text, the author says that nobody reads in the LOTR universe!
Then what the heck is Bilbo's book, the big red book of hobbits, the scrools in Gondor..
In Star Treak, people use it every day, as shown by Piccard.
So books are everywhere, but in Star Wars, they are in the form of audiobooks.
The LOTR universe is pre-industrial. Paper and parchment are costly materials, but that means they're saved for significant writing, not that everybody's illiterate.
It doesn’t take away from the larger point, but LOTR was the worst fictional example to use.
Middle-Earth was a lifelong hobby project, and the LOTR references songs, epic tales, poetry, and literature that Tolkien had worked on over the decades.
Exactly! LOTR was the worst example, and Star Wars was the same. Of course, people could read, but because they had a holographic technology, they didn't need to read. And if they read a book, it was in private as the Imperium was fascist..
I'm just glad as a GenXer I have those abilities. But it's daily work to push back. As an American woman told me on another social media platform once, "Just because it's a fact doesn't mean I have to believe it." 🤯
There's actually multiple levels of literacy. When most people talk about it, they mean functional to basic literacy: the ability to understand the words on the page.
But then there is proficient to advanced literacy where people can draw connections between sentences and find themes in the work.
I think illiterate works here. The point of reading is to ascertain conveyed meaning. If you can't interpret facts and context from words, the words are functionally meaningless, even if you can identify them. Functionally illiterate.
Maybe when you only read screens everything that is on a screen has equal weight, and believing things is just a game we play with kayfabe and coloured lights.
Also, I refrained from reaching for the joke where you yourself could not come up with a decent term, despite the English language having a variety to choose from, and its implications w/i the scope of your first post
JK I get what you're saying... But sometimes it does just seem like people literally cannot think through a simple problem. I see it as a paralegal often... Trying to convince people to just do the thing that's in their interest is... Challenging. 😩
Reading and Reading Comprehension past surface level are really miles apart... sighs
More critical thinking, less multiple choice memorization.
Having to teach and/or learn for the testing (so the school can keep the funding) instead of for comprehension is fucking us over.
My personal theory, at least in my neck of the woods, is that it's been destroyed by standardized testing. For decades kids have learned nothing deeper than reading a short paragraph, and adequately filling in a scantron sheet. And, here we are.
This passed me by as well, and as I type this I am wondering if I will be able to resist searching it out and having another dark night of the soul about the state of American education.
Couple that with a (fortunately changing) system of teaching reading that de-emphasised phonics and emphasised learning to read through context (which has collapsed) and you have lots people who aren’t even in the same universe of argument
I think it’s critically important that we attribute responsibility for internet issues to the PEOPLE who build or exploit the internet architecture that lead to social-psych problems like addiction, agitation, nihilism, extremism, & maladaptive social identity adoption.
The "psychology of marketing products" is terrifying to me. Like "how can we gaslight someone into thinking they need what we're selling?" And they've gotten SO good at it.
Also: I'm going to cite this Ted Talk next time my family asks if I'm in a relationship yet.
I don't need a partner because they'll *never* know me as well as my cellphone does. I've already found my soulmate, and they're basically a conglomeration of cat memes.
It's not even just the really pernicious stuff. We desperately need to educate young people to be more critical of online content so that we don't have YouTube pranksters and rent-a-gobs elevated to revered social philosophers.
Mr Beast shouldn't be a source of social commentary.
We are working with @bellingcat.com and other organizations to build an aggregator and development platform for critical, evidence based, & independent thinking learning curriculum with support for teachers.
I disagree Adam. 1600’s there were town cryers, who dispensed daily news for anyone within ear shot. Today we have citizen journos who have replaced town cryers and anyone who has a phone can now read and reap vital information. The problem is really with pysop operators like Cambridge Analytica
Funny, since I got interested in politics during the 2000 election, I have become an ace at picking out false arguments and outright lies. Stems from my interest in advertising, too.
Back in the day they called it "functionally illiterate": a person who recognizes & knows individual words, but when asked what sentences mean has no idea.
Perfect example: tRUmp took the oath of office twice, but when asked whether he has to protect the Constitution he answered "I don't know."
I believe almost everyone spends next to no time actually thinking about much of anything other than themselves, tbh, and they merely 'react' to what they see and hear etc 'instinctually' - but it's not instinct it's just boredom -people genuinely are like cats - they don't really "think"
How about: Lazy, careless, narrow-minded, dumb, uneducated? The people didn’t change, the access to misinformation is just so much easier these days and it’s colorful and with music, too…
Journalism has always cost money and Paywalls are necessary. Journalists are thoroughly educated persons. No matter if you buy paper or bits. Valid information is freely available, online and offline. Especially here. It’s just not as exciting as big headlines about fake news.
Comments
Wut?
😜
There's our term.
Your term “influenced” led my brain to “dysfunctional” & finally 💡 , lol.
👍🏼
Plus it opens up 'euliteracy', which ties into some of my crackpot theories about literature.
The reflexes and habits that let one navigate online spaces don't always work well IRL.
Maybe we could repurpose pigeonholed?
Here it's more the opposite.. consuming media for enjoyment only without doing the work of filtering and fact-checking.
We do see people consuming news and propaganda (from both sides!) spread, but it is basically all audio-visual.
Even without the knights and mysticism, it’s junky and low-tech, a universe of people living in the junkyard of a fallen civilization.
Most people being functionally illiterate feels appropriate.
Oh no. Are we the Rakata?
Great piece!
Then what the heck is Bilbo's book, the big red book of hobbits, the scrools in Gondor..
In Star Treak, people use it every day, as shown by Piccard.
So books are everywhere, but in Star Wars, they are in the form of audiobooks.
Sam is noted for having been taught to read by Bilbo.
Men more than hobbits more than elves, likely.
Middle-Earth was a lifelong hobby project, and the LOTR references songs, epic tales, poetry, and literature that Tolkien had worked on over the decades.
It’s weighted down in myth and fiction.
But then there is proficient to advanced literacy where people can draw connections between sentences and find themes in the work.
*Not because they’re bad at it, because it’s a Sisyphean task
Also, I refrained from reaching for the joke where you yourself could not come up with a decent term, despite the English language having a variety to choose from, and its implications w/i the scope of your first post
Pls clap
JK I get what you're saying... But sometimes it does just seem like people literally cannot think through a simple problem. I see it as a paralegal often... Trying to convince people to just do the thing that's in their interest is... Challenging. 😩
More critical thinking, less multiple choice memorization.
Having to teach and/or learn for the testing (so the school can keep the funding) instead of for comprehension is fucking us over.
[Downloads @libbyapp.com on their and presses play on audiobook]
@katestarbird.bsky.social @noupside.bsky.social @jagolinzer.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jagolinzer_we-have-a-global-accountability-crisis-that-activity-7301848389971763200-lr3C?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAABSpDMBYBTAgIsJ5IkQfZTYIrkZ7rX1D0s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yEjtLikxQGs
See, for example, my colleague David Stillwell’s discussion of how this tool is manipulated with micro targeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AcwgYXs9Ao
Also, I've liked way more than 120 posts *today.*
I don't need a partner because they'll *never* know me as well as my cellphone does. I've already found my soulmate, and they're basically a conglomeration of cat memes.
Mr Beast shouldn't be a source of social commentary.
Interested potential funders, please reach out.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zzjpbv2f9E8
https://youtu.be/0v_v1XtCW-A?feature=shared
I'd be happy to send you a copy of my book @adamserwer.bsky.social. I've been dying to get it in the hands of folks at @theatlantic.com
https://bsky.app/profile/psychunseen.bsky.social/post/3lq3nh3i46k2v
But out of curiosity, which age cohort do you think fell for Trump bs the least?
https://open.substack.com/pub/leefang/p/is-your-favorite-influencers-opinion?r=2bz9p&utm_medium=ios
Perfect example: tRUmp took the oath of office twice, but when asked whether he has to protect the Constitution he answered "I don't know."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy