Global and technological effects on organizations

Global and Technological Affects on Organizations

GLOBAL and TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES

The global digital divide and the death of reading and writing

The global digital divide and the death of reading and writing

One of the reasons for the popularity of the myth of the Tower of Babel is that the world's diversity of languages and literatures and alphabets and ways of printing, can make communication so frustrating. Even between individuals who speak the same language, regional accents and slang can create communication barriers. Yet the world, while still multilingual, is growing more and more interconnected. The visual use of online technology and the availability of automatic translation have made it easier for people to communicate, when before they would have required a translator and a face-to-face meeting. There is greater cross-cultural sharing of knowledge about the world because of the ease of communicating with others online.

But this greater interconnectedness, it could be argued, comes at a great price, namely a certain level of basic literacy. In the future, people will likely read less and write less -- or at very least, read less long, extensive, and complicated works of writing and may sign very little more than their name. This will create a cognitive shift in the way that people approach creative writing activities. Computers have replaced the need to learn to translate languages, keyboards have replaced handwriting, and online text has replaced reading in more conventional ways. The need for computers in modern organizations will only sharpen the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots of information, as the 'haves' will now have an enormous library stored in a backpack-size Kindle, while the have-nots will be dependant upon more bulky, obsolete books. But despite the wide scope of information at their disposal, the ease of searching long pieces of writing may make the technologically astute less rather than more committed to reading.

The death of serious reading and handwriting because of technology may sound like an extreme statement. But consider the fact that cursive has fallen out of fashion, now handwritten printing. Standardized tests in America do not test handwriting, and fewer people are forced to read or understand cursive or even print by hand. Although this may seem relatively insignificant, it is noteworthy that "cursive's flow works the brain differently and builds distinct cognitive skills. Handwriting reinforces reading and spelling, develops motor memory as it becomes automatic, teaches students to focus and may help them remember what they learn" (Gordon 2010). Fine motor skills required in handwriting may become completely unnecessary in coming decades, and soon everyone will only rely upon keyboards and reading print.

This will make computers and PDAs even more ubiquitous, and for younger and younger age groups. The next generation of teachers may not really know how to teach handwriting effectively, as even the teachers have grown up online, typing on computers. Thus, even though the greater ease of computer typing has its benefits; it will also create a more dependent workforce. Information can be transmitted more quickly, but also more inaccurately and impersonally, versus the slower, more deliberate and individualized method of handwriting, in which there can be no cutting and pasting.

Organizations will have a workforce with almost no experience of the tactile sensations of creation of words. If a virus or a failure of electricity were to occur, the workforce could become completely immobilized. Workers have a much wider access to large amounts of information, but there is a strong disincentive to stay focused on a single task for a long period of time while reading on a screen, even when a Kindle reader: "Amazon has already released a version of the Kindle software for reading its e-books on an iPhone, which is much more conducive to all manner of distraction. No doubt future iterations of the Kindle and other e-book readers will make it just as easy to jump online to check your 401(k) performance as it is now to buy a copy of on Beauty. (Johnson 2009). The workforce may be more educated in a shallow fashion because of its ability to Google large quantities of information, but may be less fluent in the ability to write original copy, rather than merely replicate text.

The deficit of creative hands-on technology will not necessarily make it easier for creative writers and designers to profit, as unpaid bloggers have replaced traditional advertising talent at organizations. Rather than taking years to write the great American novel, writing the new great international blog sensation is the dream of every amateur author. Companies have monetized blogs by encouraging bloggers to write positive reviews about their products for free, in exchange for free samples. Although bloggers must disclose such relationships, this acts as another disincentive to pay for writers to create original advertisements.