Rosen is Right: We can click but we can't read
In a world where technology is exploding forward at an incredible rate the unforeseen consequences seem to haunt every passing milestone of achievement. Christine Rosen of The New Atlantis argues that technology has actually given way to the precedence of the image over the written word, and that because of the image (both moving and still) literacy is declining—especially amongst the younger generations. She presses the point further in her assertion that the lack of desire for the written word and printed materials signals a declining intellectual mean in our society. The evidence presented here will show that the written word and literacy are in fact declining, and the statistics strongly infer that the rise of the image can contribute to intellectual decline. But in order to see the issue more clearly, we must look at two of the main culprits in this evolution, television and the Internet, and see their effects on literacy.
In the 1930s television was introduced to the United States as the first form of the moving image. Since then the television has become the archetype for the idea of a visual medium as a replacement for the written one—and the visual medium has grown. In 1950 only 9% of US households had a television, but as of 2009 Neilson reports that almost 99% of all households in the US had a television (Media Trends Track). Certainly the image was on the rise, but was the written word suffering at all? The answer is yes—and on all fronts. Since 1970 more than 10 million newspapers have closed their doors, and currently the average household spending on books is at a 20-year low (Crain) and in 2006 publishers reported a drop in the number of published books to the tune of 18,000 fewer publications (Naisbitt). Meanwhile the hours spent on television has only increased with time (as much as 28 hours a week for school aged children according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (Shapley)), but the grades have continued to drop—in some cases in direct
In the 1930s television was introduced to the United States as the first form of the moving image. Since then the television has become the archetype for the idea of a visual medium as a replacement for the written one—and the visual medium has grown. In 1950 only 9% of US households had a television, but as of 2009 Neilson reports that almost 99% of all households in the US had a television (Media Trends Track). Certainly the image was on the rise, but was the written word suffering at all? The answer is yes—and on all fronts. Since 1970 more than 10 million newspapers have closed their doors, and currently the average household spending on books is at a 20-year low (Crain) and in 2006 publishers reported a drop in the number of published books to the tune of 18,000 fewer publications (Naisbitt). Meanwhile the hours spent on television has only increased with time (as much as 28 hours a week for school aged children according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (Shapley)), but the grades have continued to drop—in some cases in direct
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