Alt. Text Post #1- The born digital learners

 “The shift is happening throughout our culture, away from the patterns and habits of the printed page and toward a new world distinguished by its reliance on electronic communications…we are living through a period of overlap; one way of being is pushed athwart another.” (Birkets, 1994, p.118-121)

 “Told that we are threatened with extinction, we, today’s readers, have yet to learn what reading is.”(Manguel, 1996, p.23)

   I think that these quotes accurately reflect on the articles’ competing, yet similar ideas: one that argues that the fate of the printed word is in a crucial stage where it is at the brink of being lost, while the other struggles to define what reading is.  In today’s world, the old modes of reading are being crushed beneath the weight of the looming electronic medium that is encompassing our lives.  As Birkets (1994) discusses, it is difficult for us to stand back and look at the impact of the electronic age because we are so immersed in it- there is “no independent ledge where we might secure our footing”(p.119).  The electronic medium is fast, diverse, and moves in every which way- so it makes it all the more difficult for us to notice anything outside of it.  We may be becoming better and faster consumers, but that comes at a price- the loss of the linear form of print, the erosion of language, the flattening of diverse perspectives, and the gradual waning of the private self (Birkets, 1994, p.128-130).  However, Manguel (1996) states that we do not actually know the impact that the written word will have on the future- since we cannot accurately say that today’s readers will define the reading of the future (p.23).  The definition of reading and text is always being altered, so therefore the loss of print may actually be a natural shift into the next evolution of text. As discussed in the film Digital Nation, there is always a loss with shift- the shift from oral to print was a loss of memory- and we are in a period of evolution again.

   For the born digital learners, this shift from print to electronic could mean loss, but it could also mean seamless evolution; it really depends on what we define as text.  These learners are already expert multitaskers who possess technical prowess, so the tight grip of the digital medium may be the most comfortable mode of learning for them.  As Palfrey and Gasser (2008) discuss in Born Digital, these digital natives “perceive information to be malleable; it is something they can control and reshape in new and interesting ways” (p.6).  If their dominant way of knowing is through electronic means, then couldn’t that arguably just be what they define now as “reading”? The definition changes throughout history, so for born digital learners the shift from print to electronic may not be viewed as a loss but moreso the natural evolution of reading and text.

References

Birkerts, Sven. (1994). The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Boston: Faber and Faber.

Manguel, Alberto. (1996). A History of Reading. Toronto: Random House Canada.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Rushkoff, Douglas and Rachel Dretzin. (2010). Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier.  PBS Frontline. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/.