Faytkenbu's List: Illiteracy

• In this generation, we have a big problem on our hands and they are computers and calculators. As technology booms with newly sophisticated gadgets and the decades go on by, I have noticed that people actually do not know the basic math skills and always resort to a calculator to find the answers or their mobile phones or the computer
• Nowadays its now all about text messaging, using calculators, and spell check on the computer, but there really is no effort and work being put in by people these days. Everything is so easy these days. Its sad. These children and these teenagers are our next generation and they are the ones will take over the world someday and its a pretty scary thought to think of the future as illiteracy will be on the rise and that education will not be the way it was and its starting out to be that way as decades go on and more sophisticated products come out to make people be more illiterate.
• Before there was no such thing as typing up essays, and homework, everything was done by hand, and a lot more hours were spent on doing homework everyday, people did crafts, people did all kinds of things before the computers and all this stuff was invented.
• Know your limit when it comes to technology. Yes computers and calculators are fine tools and they  are incredible with communication with family and friends, and researching about places, animals, things, subjects, society, but that should be the limit. take it to the limit and the rest try to learn it on your own.

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• According to the literacy fast facts from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), literacy is defined as "using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one�s goals, and to develop one�s knowledge and potential."
• "One measure of literacy is the percentage of adults who perform at four achievement levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. In each type of literacy, 13 percent of adults were at or above Proficient (indicating they possess the skills necessary to perform complex and challenging literacy activities) in 2003. Twenty-two percent of adults were Below Basic (indicating they possess no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills) in quantitative literacy, compared with 14 percent in prose literacy and 12 percent in document literacy."

• The real problems associated with being illiterate involve critical parts of life such as understanding medical instruction, applying for a loan, signing a contract, or getting basic job training. These life-altering situations are often the path to a better life, yet without the ability to read often comes misunderstanding and confusion which perpetuates the cycle of poverty and illness. In fact, poverty and burden of disease correlate directly with illiteracy and low literacy. Life expectancy is lowest where people cannot read.
• •In the U.S. over 93 million people have basic or below basic literacy skills.

• Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.
• "Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary," Greenfield said. "Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades."
• Another study Greenfield analyzed found that college students who watched "CNN Headline News" with just the news anchor on screen and without the "news crawl" across the bottom of the screen remembered significantly more facts from the televised broadcast than those who watched it with the distraction of the crawling text and with additional stock market and weather information on the screen.
• These and other studies show that multi-tasking "prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information," Greenfield said.

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• Fancy gadgets and useful devices that help us out have become the norm in our society. Spell check, cell phones and others useful items help us get things done faster and easier. However there’s a problem with this technology, its making use more illiterate. Using devices like spell check are hurting us because it teaches use how not to remember a word, just type in something that looks like it and the answer will pop up.
• Yes we are still talking to people, but it’s much dimmer and dull and we do not get a whole lot out of it. Using phrases like omg, brb, u, r, lmao are making it faster to send a message, but it is slowly making use more illiterate.
• The problem We’re going to discuss how technology makes us as students illiterate. In my (Brandon) experience, auto-correct had made me second guess my spelling and I feel like auto-correct had damaged my ability to spell. Also, I feel like students are now negatively influenced by apps such as Twitter and Facebook. I constantly see the misuse of your, you’re, there, their, they’re and so on.
• Texting is teaching us how to spell words wrong, and sometimes we can’t spell them right anymore. Shorting words like U and R, are making us illiterate. When I’m (Sean) writing a paper, I sometimes write words the way I would in a text. Today’s method of communication is changing the way we write. I (Dan) can say that I have been affected by this because sometimes, when typing, I will abbreviate things or knowingly spell things wrong hoping that spellcheck will fix it for me.
• According to a 2007 survey carried out by the U.K. Government Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), more than 4 in 5 children ages 5–15 have access to a home computer, and levels of Internet use are at 46% for 5- to 7-year-olds and 75% for 12- to 15-year-olds. Furthermore, children in the12–15 age group reported that use of the Internet was “the most important technology in their lives—more important than television” (DCSF, 2007). Ofcom, 2008, also say that 84% of girls compated to 75% of boys use the internet at least once a week for instant messaging. According to a study, 20% of students never read fiction or nonfiction books, but about 67% surf websites weekly. The study found that 20% of older students attributed their poor writing skills to the fact that they do not write much.

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