At
the core of the development described so far is the fundamental
shift from one dominant sign system, called language, and its
reified form, called literacy, to several sign systems, among
which the visual plays a dominant role. We would certainly fail
to understand what is happening, what the long-lasting
consequences of the changes we face are, and what the best course
of action is, if we were to look only at the influence of
technology. Understanding the degree of necessity of the
technology in the first place is where the focus should be. The
obsession with symptoms, characteristic of industrial
pragmatics, is not limited to mechanics' shops and doctors'
offices.
New practical experiences within the scale of humankind that
result in the need for alternatives to language confirm that the
focus cannot be on television and computer screens, nor on
advertisement, electronic photography, and laser discs. The issue
is not CD-ROM, digital video, Internet and the World Wide Web,
but the need to cope with complexity. And the goal is to achieve
higher levels of efficiency corresponding to the needs and
expectations of the global scale that humankind has reached.
So far, very few of those who study the matter have resisted the
temptation to fasten blame on television watching or on the
intimidating intrusion of electronic and digital contraptions
for the decline of literacy.
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