In the sense of digital literacies, there is almost an unseen hand that guides us or promotes us to read and write. These sponsors may be our other friends online that write or share articles online, or even celebrities that leave a message on Twitter to promote social awareness and spark conversation on the subject. It is interesting to look at Facebook and the articles that the social media site posts on the right tab that bring news to its users. In a sense, Facebook can determine what you see on your morning social media check, and they can guide the way in which you receive information, as well as what avenues you use to obtain more information on the subject. This is different than print based literacies because as seen in the TED talk during class, the Internet has given a place for not only media outlets and corporations to spread their word, but it has also given the everyday user the chance to create content and have it be posted to a public view. Never before has it been so easy to generate content and mass-produce like the Internet can.

My most recent feat of literacy has been to navigate through a smart phone after finally switching to one from my dumb phone. Although friends have had smart phones for years and I had an iPod touch for a while, the entire data, 4G, and actual navigation of the smart phone was pretty foreign to me. Luckily for me, I am relatively literate with electronic devices and I understand a lot of the terminology already. Even after my recent push through the learning curve, I have many more hours till I unlock the true capacity of my Android. My biggest challenge has been trying to connect to the school Wi-Fi on my device due to the confusing abbreviations and acronyms associated with the Wi-Fi connections.

“Papa amazes me. Nana moves to kindle but later got an iPad. Gave kindle to papa and he said “I’ll just buy 25 cent books.” We got him a visually impaired program for free (app on iPad, very easy to download) later. Papa started reading on kindle and he could take it to the doctor’s office. He still read on his mini iPad. Nana downloads books from him. He liked the iPad more cause it was lighter and brighter, print size could be changed. Earlier in life he started doing more emails cause him and Nana would travel the US in their RV. Email became a diary that was sent to his family to keep them up to date. They didn’t understand the blog idea although that’s basically what it was. At 75 now, they did far more on computers than was ever expected. Despite their upbringing (demographic differences: Nana and Papa) they turned out both very good readers and writers. Despite low socioeconomic upbringing, Papa kicked ass.”

 

This is a direct quote from my Mom talking about her father. I thought it was incredibly interesting that despite the two differing starting points in life, my Nana and Papa were able to both become incredibly intellectual people. Despite growing up the youngest of 10 as first generation in the US, my Papa strived against the odds and graduated college.