Digital Literacy: Good and Bad

In Girls Make Media, Kearney talks about the flaws that sometimes exist within girls advocacy programs. Initially before reading the entire section, I was a little confused about her claims but upon reading more I do see the point she is trying to make. Kearney especially believes that although advocacy movements do educate girls about things like media literacy and empowerment, they do not do a good enough job to encourage girls to create their own media as a way to combat the inequalities that exist. They do not teach girls how to write and pick up cameras as a way to make a real mark on media. Kearney goes on to talk about the Girls Scouts and how similar issues exist within the organization. Although the Girls Scouts do have a guidebook for girls regarding media, Kearney argues that it simply does not contain enough information (95). While I don’t think these initiatives should be completely discounted (they have helped many girls out there, after all), I do thing the points Kearney brought up were both thought-provoking and important. To me, a great way to encourage girls in our own lives is to provide as much education as we can to them, and furthermore, help provide them with the means they need to change the things they don’t like about the media. As Kearney suggested, I think teaching girls about how they can create media themselves would be incredibly beneficial. Malory Graham stated, “By teaching teenage girls how to be critical television waters and then producers of their own media, we are giving them a voice in an arena where they are heavily targeted as consumers but where their artistic expression is seldom heard or seen,” (112). To me, this is a perfect description of what needs to happen.

I really enjoyed the section on the digital divide too. Although it seems obvious that higher income families would be able to provide their children with easier access to things like the internet versus lower income families, I really enjoyed the analysis of the issue. Sex plays into the issue as well, and I thought it was interesting that although claims were made that women and girls were slower to adapt to the internet than men and boys, girls aged 9-17 surpassed boys in their internet use (243). I think this says something about the true adaptability of girls, and the idea that they’re in general, underestimated. The section goes on to discuss the lack of females in the computer and IT fields (similarly to math and science fields). I think this is attributed to lack of encouragement from educators, lack of confidence and lack of resources (which Kearney touches upon too). As a girl who knows as much if not more about computers than the men around me, I do think its important for more girls to be knowledgeable and involved in the field. The best way to do this in my opinion is by providing encouragement and instilling the belief that computers and IT jobs are not meant for just men.

I thought the New York Times article was fascinating as well. A lot of it was pretty shocking to read, and its incredible to think about what kind of effect the internet has had on book reading. One of the things that stuck out to me most was the sentence, “Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories.” I thought this was a really interesting, well-thought out analogy, and I do thing it makes sense in a lot of ways. While I’m not saying that digital reading amounts to no education, I do thing that there is something that books provide that reading articles, forums, blogs etc on the internet can not replace. Like empty calories, internet readings can be fun and taste good, but what do they really provide to us in the long run intellectually? In the article, Nadia claims that you don’t need to read books to get into college, however lower tests scores say otherwise. To me, the article was a great reminder that although digital literacy is incredibly important, it can do harm to girls as well. A certain balance needs to be achieved, however it seems difficult to decipher how to create this balance. To me, girls (and boys when it comes to it) need to be taught that picking up books can be just as rewarding as something like reading a blog, fanfiction, facebook profiles etc. Although I personally love the internet and get a lot from it, nothing I read on it compares to my favorite books.