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> It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their time on Tiktok and phones, and not knowing how to use a word processor. This

by Swizec 2y ago

> It isn't anymore, not for newer generations - e.g. Gen Z spending most of their time on Tiktok and phones, and not knowing how to use a word processor. This is a classic fallacy as old as society. “Whatever the hoi polloi are doing is by definition not the good stuff”. But long-term whatever the masses are doing always wins. You know Shakespeare? He was the rube who thought plays could be entertaining to the masses. How quaint and silly, who would expect a commoner to appreciate a play. pfft. Mozart? Taylor Swift of his day. Printing press? Don’t even get me started, ew the commoners think they can just, like, write things down? How rude. I’m as much an anti-fan of the short video communication trend as anyone, but it works. When bandwidth is cheap and video recording ubiquitous, video is a great medium. Who cares what you say, show me. edit to add an uncomfortable truth: The in-crowd talks to develop ideas. What you see in writing is weeks, months, or even years behind the bleeding edge.

samatman 2y ago
There should be a term for the fallacy on display here. The Spurious Generalization Fallacy perhaps? At no point did you address whether the shifting habits of younger generations will be bad for their literacy, instead making a general point that new trends in society are routinely panned by older members of such a society. As a counterpoint, before radio and the phonograph, musical ability was quite widespread. Now, it's much rarer. You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way.
- Swizec 2y ago
  > You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way. Fair, I was making a different point. Yes literacy might be reduced, my argument is that this isn’t necessarily a problem. Our abilities shift to take advantage of technology. A lot like how we got really bad at memorizing long epics because we can just write them down instead. That said, I don’t think writing/literacy will go away as much as we might fear. The new technologies are not a good enough replacement (yet?)

by Swizec 2y ago

samatman 2y ago

There should be a term for the fallacy on display here. The Spurious Generalization Fallacy perhaps? At no point did you address whether the shifting habits of younger generations will be bad for their literacy, instead making a general point that new trends in society are routinely panned by older members of such a society. As a counterpoint, before radio and the phonograph, musical ability was quite widespread. Now, it's much rarer. You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way.

Swizec 2y ago
> You haven't even attempted to address whether various developments in society and technology might do this to literacy the way earlier trends did to musical skills. I think that result is quite likely, by the way. Fair, I was making a different point. Yes literacy might be reduced, my argument is that this isn’t necessarily a problem. Our abilities shift to take advantage of technology. A lot like how we got really bad at memorizing long epics because we can just write them down instead. That said, I don’t think writing/literacy will go away as much as we might fear. The new technologies are not a good enough replacement (yet?)