Evolution of the Internet

When the internet came into widespread use in the mid 1990’s, it was seen primarily as a tool for searching out and downloading information. Research was exciting, interesting and seemed unlimited.

More recent evolutions have seen a tremendous boom in social networking sites such as Myspace, Twitter and Facebook. With the increased popularity in blogging, the value and use of the world-wide-web has increased exponentially. Even individuals with minimal digital literacy skills have the opportunity to contribute to the literary world in much more than simple text format. Many young children know how to upload text, photos, and videos, along with downloading of information for work, school and entertainment purposes. Publishing your work is as easy as pressing the send button on your computer. Perhaps shocking to publishers, the largest encyclopedia in the world, Wikipedia, is entirely user generated and is continuously being vetted and added to by its users. The skills required to use and contribute to the web have become more and more commonplace and necessary to compete in the global workplace.

Another exciting advance has occurred in the last few years with the advent of software that trains information to find the user. In his book Redefining Literary 2.0, David Warlick describes a protocol called RSS. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. This innovation works very cleverly in conjunction with small programs called Feed Aggregators. These two programs work in combination to scan web sites favored by the user. They are able to search out useful information and recent posts. If for example I hold a YouTube account. Based on previous videos I have searched for and watched the website’s software develops a list of videos I might be interested in. Every time I log on, I am informed of new information available in specific topics of my choosing. Facebook, eBay and many others have begun to implement this technology into their websites .The RSS button has become commonplace on major websites.

Traditional literacy referred to the ability to read and write. Sometimes numeracy (working with numbers) was included in that definition. Today, the skills required to be truly literate include not only reading, writing and arithmetic, but more importantly the ability to thoughtfully search out, manipulate and contribute to information in today’s ever-changing digital world.