Pencils to Pixels

        According to the article "From Pencils to Pixels" the computer is the gateway to literacy. This is somewhat true. Although most people use the computer to read and write, it can also be the reason people become illiterate. Computers can cause people to stop thinking for themselves. They become less analytical and lazy readers. Writing is a form of technology because it can be used to accomplish goals, organize data and ideas, and communicate. The pencil is a form of technology because it is a tool. In Plato's opinion, writing things down was bad for humans because it caused people's memory to be inadequate. He also argued that the written word was not interactive. Written word is good because one can really take time and think about what message they want to send. It also is a good because everything can be recorded and saved. Writing can be bad because it can cause people to be less interactive and most of the time people do not think before they speak. He may have only supported it because his family was in the pencil making business. He did not say much about pencils, however, he did make it known that he was not a fan of inventions such as the telegraph. When he made the best pencil he could make he felt that there was no point in trying to improve it any more. The telephone changed the way people talked. This was mainly because people could not speak in private or use body language to communicate with one another. However, it allowed people to talk more often. Technology made it easier to commit fraud but at the same time it made it easier to detect fraudulence. New technology can be scary and it can change the way we do things. Though we may be skeptical, we have to give technology a chance or else there will be no progress. The technology that scares us may end up being the very thing that changes the world for the better. That may not always be the case but we have to give it a try and hope for the best. This article describes literacy as the ability to adapt to, use, and understand technological advancements.