FENN'S IN MEDIA'S RACE

CYBERLOGUE
The New Wave of Digital Literacy

by John Fenn

E-mail and Internet conversations and chat sessions will and are restoring literacy in the 18th and 19th Century sense. At that time, people of letters were as well known for the profusion and quality of their correspondence, as for their proficiency with the alphabet. Lord Chesterfield's entire literary fame ('tho I have precious little memory of anything he ever wrote) rested on his correspondence.

Recently, people ceased writing letters to each other with exponential rapidity - reaching a low level about five years ago when most of us forswore writing those parentally mandated thank you notes for dinner engagements. Gawd, we just grabbed the damn horn and give 'em a call.

Now we are in the midst of a giant 180 degree reversal. In the span of a few short years, the youth culture has reversed the trend entirely by the institutionalization of Cyberlogue ... the new wave of digital literacy. All of a sudden folks are building address books filled with distant relatives, casual acquaintances or anyone you may discover while idly surfing.