The Influence Of Alvin Toffler On The 21st Century

Toffler on the 21st Century The definition of who is “literate” has transformed in the 21st century, but how exactly did it affect our world and society today? Alvin Toffler, a futurist, stated “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” There are many possible insights on this quote; the optimistic insight sees that our society is advancing when it comes to learning new and past information, while the problematic insight sees that we may have different point of views on who is now considered “smart” in our society. According to Toffler, being literate in the 21st century means that you should be able to control how you learn information and how to obtain
certain skills in order to survive in this century full of numerous evolutions. A skill people must have today is having the ability to adapt to the advancements made in our world.
Most people have adjusted to the improvements, thus expanding their knowledge on technology and techniques within the last century. The government also has to keep up since the majority of America has been updated with the latest of these advancements. For example, people now use computers, tablets, online instruction, etc. to help them extend their knowledge on a subject or multiple subjects. It has become the bare minimum to know how to work with the current establishments of today. In the video, “2 Million Minutes”, students from America, China, and India are all in a sort of “competition” with each other that is primarily focused on their education and futures. The nations of China and India are growing economically and educationally at a rapid pace, due to the advancements made to their educational system and technology. Meanwhile in America, we are strategizing a plan to overturn who’s in control of these terms, yet we don’t exactly have a certain plan. To sum it up, if you don’t know how to keep up with the evolution of technology or education, you are considered “slow”, or in Toffler’s mindset,
“illiterate”. Globalization has also furthered the aspects of “literate”.
The exchange of ideas, world views, products, and other aspects of culture has made the world’s knowledge of various information extend to the fullest. Therefore, making the standards of the common person’s knowledge higher. The people of the United States are expected to be knowing or having a side on certain things more differently than other countries in the world. For example, the problem with the climate change; it’s not that much of an impact for the United States, being the “quiet crisis” the main problem. According to Shirley Anne Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, the United States is not aware of the erosion of their scientific and engineering base, making the capacity to innovate very challenging. But for other countries, like China, it has a great concern on how much climate change is affecting our world. China seems to be “unlearning” that the world may not need any assistance and is “relearning” the information on climate change by observing what problems seem to be impacting our world as one. They are taking another look from what the United States sees, causing China and other countries to have a different point of
view. The people of this century must also gain knowledge on how to apply critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, etc. into use in our current situations that are pushing us down. Rajesh Rao, a video game entrepreneur from India, mentions “[The] Americans whining—we have never seen that before.” With that being said, it is interpreted that Americans do not put in the full effort in trying to fix the weaknesses of our country. Applying what we know and making use of our knowledge and skills will make America back to number one on the list of advancing countries. With many implications going on, we don’t know where exactly to start in order to progress; we’re waiting for someone to fix our problems instead of actually doing something about it. The action of “unlearning” these habits will result in the solution of this issue.”Relearning” the importance of having a strong knowledge of mental ingenuity will lock the position of progression into place. In conclusion, the world has changed their views on many concepts and is now working to make the ideas a bare minimum to extend our knowledge. Controlling how you learn information and how to obtain and incorporate certain skills in this century is considered “literate” in Toffler’s point of view. The world may have changed, but our minds have more potential to expand our knowledge to even further extent. The choice is yours whether you want to make a difference in society. Making sure you’re up-to-date with technology, have the ability to use critical thinking, problem solving, etc. will qualify you as being part of the literate class in this century.