Baron: From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology

Baron, Dennis. "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Technology Literacy."

 

         Computers in the Composition Classroom: a Critical Sourcebook. Comp.

 

         Michelle Sidler, Elizabeth O. Smith, and Richard Morris. Boston: Bedford/St.

           

         Martins, 2008. 116-34. Print.

 

 

This chapter is all about nostalgia and the fear of the new and different. Baron cites that during the time in which the pencil was created, people were very suspicious of it. The same thing occurred when the telegraph came about, and now the same thing is happening with computers and other advanced technologies. Baron addresses the fact that new technology requires new literacy. Because of the fact that new technologies only let a certain privileged few become literate in the initial stages, suspicion naturally ensues.

 

I liked this article, because it is very interesting to me that so many people are suspicious of technology, as it creates potential for fraud and forgery. The book gives a great example of how new technologies have always made people feel this way-- even technologies that we now see as very primitive. "Questions of validity came up because writing was indeed being used to perpetuate fraud. Monks, who controlled writing technology in England at the time, were also responsible for some notorious forgeries used to snatch land from private owners" (122). It just goes to show you-- before anything new is accepted, it is distrusted and fought.

 

What confuses me is the entire premise for this piece. Why is it that people naturally resist change? Don't we realize that there was a point when we had to chisel stone tablets? Aren't we glad the pencil and pen came along? This is just a natural evolution. Technology happens, and I don't really see why everyone tries so hard to resist it.

 

I am interested in the Lead Pencil Club, as listed on page 133. I didn't actually think such a club existed, but I looked it up and it does! Check out this link to a book you can buy, put out by the Lead Pencil Club. Their mission is to "pull the plug on the technological revolution." What? Are they serious?