Less Literate America

Hedge’s view on the American public is that we are slowly getting less and less literate as time goes on. I think Hedge was a little over dramatic about this view though. It seemed like he was saying illiterate people basically can’t survive. He mentioned how people who are illiterate usually have to eat fast food because they can’t read a normal menu, but anyone can go to any restaurant and order just a burger or something simple without even looking at a menu. It’s not that hard. Also, he basically said that anybody that works at a fast food restaurant is illiterate. But that’s not true. Most of the people who work at fast food restaurants are teenagers who just need some money. They don’t work there because they are illiterate, but because it’s a good first job.
Something else in the article I had a problem with was where Hedge had a paragraph in the article about how the speaking levels of the presidents have decreased over the years. But I really can’t find a problem in that. What’s the big deal if they aren’t using big words when they speak; they are still getting their point across aren’t they? This goes for everyone too; as long as a person knows how to say what they want to say, it shouldn’t be a big deal whether or not they use big words.
When comparing Hedge’s “America the Illiterate” and Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, there are some obvious connections. The main one is that they both see that society is beginning to read less and use things such as images instead. In Carr’s article, he talks about how America is becoming less dependent on reading and then Hedge takes over from where Carr left off and goes on about what will become of the people who are illiterate.