New technologies, new illiteracy?
Technological developments have generally created fears. One could call it "novaphobia". During this century, such fears have often been proven wrong. Travelling on a train that does more than 40 kilometres per hour does not make it impossible for people to breathe. Disappearing into the cold, black universe is not one of the risks of flying an aeroplane. The computer perhaps put people out of work, but it also created a whole new industry with millions of jobs worldwide.
Technological development is often discussed, but usually only in the context of economy or environment. In my opinion, technological development has a social dimension that is easily forgotten. Developments in information technology might make whole generations victims of a new "electronic illiteracy".
Image and sound
The latest computer technologies make it possible to manipulate images in any imaginable way and far beyond that. If you don't believe this, go and see Tom Hanks shake hands with President Kennedy in the movie "Forest Gump". Videos and movies can be edited frame by frame, pixel by pixel. The face of Clinton can be pasted onto the body of a burglar filmed by a security camera. Jeltsin can be shown shaking hands with Zhirinovski.
Such images can be created in a matter of hours and distributed worldwide in a matter of minutes. They might have as much relation to reality as the average Tom and Jerry cartoon, an important difference being that anyone can distinguish a cartoon from reality. Our societies have been becoming very dependent on visual information. The Gulf War was reduced to minute long shots of aircraft taking off and bullets flying around. Poverty and hunger in developing countries is reduced to second long shots of starving children. What might happen in a world so dependent on visual information, when litteraly any image can be generated on a computer in a matter of hours.
Virtual reality
The latest in computer entertainment is "virtual reality". As the name says, this technique uses a computer to create a fake reality. Today, this still needs special suits and gloves and tons of equipment. But what will be possible in the future? The average desktop computer today can do more than a computer that filled a whole building 20 years ago. Developments in electronics go faster and faster every day. Ten years from now, it might only take a few small pieces of equipment to make somebody that is happily sunbathing in Spain believe to be wrestling with a polar bear in the north of Norway.
Electronic illiteracy
Everyone will agree that a person who cannot read and write will miss a lot of vital information. Without exaggeration one could say that it is impossible to function in today's society without these skills. In my opinion, we will very soon reach the point where it is impossible to function in society without knowledge of advanced computers and software and a basic knowledge of what can be done with them. How can one judge an image and the information it is supposed to transmit without knowing how images can be manipulated? How can one judge reality without knowing how we perceive reality and how it can be faked with electronic equipment?
Education
Just as reading and writing are one of the foundations of any education nowadays, in the future we will have to adept these foundations to developments in society. The ability to judge pictures, the information they contain and the background and history of them may soon become an essential skill. Information is gathered by observation, but the ability to analyse what is observed will become more essential with every step forward in technology. Up until today, developments in electronics have been going endlessly much faster than developments in our educational systems. And if this is not changed, we could end up with whole generations of electronic illiterates, people who cannot "read" an image and can only take it at face value.
Other effects
Electronic illiteracy is not the only undesirable effect of developments in computers and information technology. One should also consider the amounts of money needed to keep up with such development. To teach a person to read and write, a pencil and a piece of paper suffice. To teach about computers, software and manipulation of sound and image, considerable investment is needed. This might create a new division between rich and poor in Western societies and on a global level it might widen the gap between the rich North and the poor South.
Conclusion
Ethical and sociological debates around for example developments in medical science are quite common. When computers and information technology are concerned, every new development can expect a warm welcome. It is time to start discussing the social effects of these technologies and how we are going to deal with them. Technological development is racing ahead, with our without us. Now is the time to make sure that large groups within our global society are not left behind.
Article by Jan Weijers who, by the way, is very happy with new technologies. This article originally appeared in Libel (number 3 of 1994), the magazine of the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY). It was later re-published in the Howard Lake-Waverly Herald & Winsted-Lester Priarie Journal.
