Optimism V. Pessimism

                Scribner points to the face that literacy is a social achievement and is defined by the place and time that the person is in. For example, Scribner shows that literacy in history ranges from signing your own name to memorizing a religious text. She notes how the lack of consensus of literacy – like Hedges saying most of American is illiterate – comes from the differing views on what literacy’s social purposes are. With this view, Scribner gives a more optimistic perspective on literate people than both Hedges and Carr gave. Although Scribner’s view was optimistic, Thompson had the most optimistic view of literacy in the United States in his article “New Literacy.” Thompson discusses how Andrea Lunsford studied first-year students and determined that their literacy rates have not decreased due to the internet, and in fact the internet has helped them in adjusting their writing for an audience.

                The most obvious comparisons between the optimistic and pessimistic views on literacy are between Thompson and Carr because they both deal with how the internet affects people. Carr claims that the internet is breaking concentration and makes it harder for people to read for an extended period of time – which hurts our intelligence. However, Thompson concluded that the internet gives younger people an outlet for writing and therefore prepares them better for writing for a specific audience. Both of these points are valid. Carr talks about what the internet did to our reading and Thompson discusses what the internet has done to our writing skills. Maybe this is where we have to say that the internet has both positive and negative aspects, and while it does break our concentration, it makes us stronger writers. The internet – like most things in life – is not entirely bad or good.

                Comparisons between Thompson and Hedges provide more complications, however. Each article shows limitations due to their one-sided perspectives. Hedges discusses statistics that he twists so that he can say that most Americans are illiterate. But, Thompson focuses all his information on a study done on college freshmen. Because this study does not include most of the population and focuses only on a group that could be considered more intelligent than the general populace, we need to take the information with the context. In other words, both Hedges and Thompson’s claims about literate America may not be entirely accurate.