The Other Type of Illiterate

The Need For Media Literacy 

         I was born into a world where technology was a future that everyone around me so vivaciously beckoned, while I felt like the stone on the ground that all of the sand would brush past with no effect. To me and millions all around me, the appeal of burning through the minutes of a digital clock when we could be playing around with the gears of an analog one seemed foolish, perfecting one’s craft on a set of 26 keys instead of the harmonious tunes of 88 physical ones seemed erratic, and spending any time at all learning how to maneuver the infinite number of digital facets seemed next to nothing when shadowed by the brilliant intricacies of the real world.

Now, I can do all but wish that I had learned how, because there is no one left to teach me. And my friends, family, and so many others who I love and look up to who stuck by me to plant our feet in the soil of the real world are dying because of it. No longer can my excruciating ailments be remedied by simply showing up to a doctor and treating them; no, I must book an appointment online. My attempts to accrue financial benefits are rendered futile by the complex digital platform that disables me from accessing my bank account. My job, my communication, and my ability to do anything of practical use in this real world are all hard-wired into a big container of solid crystal plastic, and the only way to survive is to think inside of the box, inside of the computer screen. The worst part? Even the very act of learning how to use this massive hulk of chips and whirs with no physical help requires the use of a tutorial; one that is on YouTube, a digital platform.

With technology more interconnected with life than actual physical relationships, other people are more scarce in actually helping people like me figure out how to tackle the media, and our senile minds can't keep up with rapid fire updates. The digital divide is a crater that expands day by day by week by week by month by month by year by year for seemingly forever, and if it isn’t addressed soon, it may just consume us all. I agree that technology is a good thing: that’s subsidiary to the point. But the new generation with enough financial capabilities and privilege to rival the pace at which technology is ballooning is such a microscopic elite group of the world that most of the less fortunate are left to fend for their own with a plausible result yielding no avail.

So what’s the solution? We need more media literacy programs, more available digital lectures, more tech-savvy institutionalists prodded by the government to help out, and the generation of know-it-alls to acquiesce for the benefit of humanity overall, not just in a marginalized sub group. A close friend of mine recently passed away because during the disturbingly long period of time that it took for her to navigate to the emergency call button on her phone and dial 911, she had collapsed from a brain hemorrhage that she was concurrently undergoing and was unable to complete this previously unfamiliar digitized task in time. I don’t want media literacy to be the bar between people and the prosperous life they deserve, so we must act now. Let’s bridge the gap, together.