Illiteracy, in our widely accepted lexicon, is the inability to read. Cool. So, that means literacy is the ability to read, right? Well, that’s not all there is to the equation. Literacy, according to UNESCO, is “continuum of learning and proficiency in reading, writing and using numbers throughout life.” It’s a muscle we can keep growing and exercising, given the resources or motivation to.
To me, then, literacy is a powerful gift. And if there’s one thing I learned from my favorite, obscure indie comic “Spider-Man,” it’s that “with great power, comes great responsibility.” What do we choose to do with our literacy?
For the more prototypical response, we could say we read books. But let’s be honest, when’s the last time you picked up a book on your own volition and for your own personal enjoyment? If you can say you’ve read one book in the past year, that’s already more than a lot of adults in the U.S. can. According to a survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, only 48.5% of adults in 2022 reported that they’d read at least one book that year, a sharp decline from the 54.6% in 2012. It’s safe to say the number is declining to this day.
But what about the stuff we read on our screens? You’ve probably got a lot of them–a phone, school laptop, maybe a tablet for games or hobbies. We get our news through a buzz on our phones, granted you have a news app or social media. Having high literacy can help you here, too. If you’re the type to skim headlines from big news sources such as CNN or Fox News, you’re not getting the full picture. Opening an article or breaking news report can be intimidating, though.
Luckily, news sources these days are all caught up on where the average adult is readingwise. Some rules they have are being clear, concise and accessible. If the first thing you see when opening a news report is a bunch of jargon you don’t understand, you’re going to click off. The language is already streamlined into bringing in the most readers possible, across all literacy levels.
Reading and comprehension are two different parts of literacy, though. Can you question what’s in an article? Who is giving you this information? Why? What could they possibly be gaining from telling you, the reader, about a political occurrence, or event happening in your city? A good way to check this is by relaying this information as accurately but succinctly as possible to a friend or family member. Do they understand what you’re telling them and why? Are you able to answer questions about it afterward and admit you don’t know something if they get too specific?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of taking information at its most basic form–a headline or comment–and to run off with it without giving it much thought. Try interrogating your sources and yourself the next time you read something, whether that be a fictional tale or real world news story. You may find that reading is pretty rewarding.
