By Sara Sypolt ’26

Major: Psychology, pre-pharmacy track

Contributor Biography: Sara Sypolt is a psychology major completing the pre-pharmacy track from Aberdeen, Maryland. They enjoy collaging and reading in their free time, as well as practicing yoga and meditation. He hopes to get his PharmD after graduating from Washington College.

Brief Description: This paper was written as a final revision paper for English 101, where our prompt was to go back on one of our essays and expand it based on the readings and pieces we read this semester. I wrote this piece mixing my first essay, which was about electronic media and its impact on literacy, with my third essay, which was about multimedia literature and how it can impact our literacy.

The following was written for ENG 101: Literature and Composition

During my second semester of my freshman year at Washington College, I took an English class, African American Literature II, which focuses on modern pieces of African American literature. These pieces were written during the 20^th and 21^st century. We focused on works such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, and Percival Everett’s I am Not Sidney Poitier. These works were not the easiest for me to comprehend – I have always struggled with interpreting literary devices such as tone, irony, and metaphor. These works specifically used many of those devices. Take, for example, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a work which places great depth and meaning on many mundane objects. A pear tree, a car, hair…understanding the importance of these objects did not come for me on my first read. I took them as they were, literally. Understanding the depth of the books we read comes with interpreting these literary devices, and my professor made that clear when we began reading our novels. So, she clearly suggested for us to use SparkNotes as an accompanying form of electronic literature to our physical literature so we could fully comprehend the novel and the meaningfulness of these devices. I was surprised – I was led through a school system which strongly and aptly denounced the use of any online interpretive tools. Many of my teachers considered it cheating to use these tools and were adamant to find out if any of us were plagiarizing our ideas from these online sources. To be green-lit and allowed to use a tool such as this was surprising and relieving. Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God and other novels with SparkNotes was incredibly satisfying. Being able to wrap my head around the interwoven concepts of race theory and literary device in these texts made my experience more meaningful. It provided great depth for me to work with in these novels and allowed me to construct essays which explored significant concepts which would have been otherwise unrecognized had I not been able to pair my reading with SparkNotes. Reading literature alongside a helpful tool such as SparkNotes allows me to understand depth which I would not have understood had I not had the tool. My experience in the classroom with a helpful online tool allowed for meaningful and significant discussion of the works which we read.

Upon reading The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts,imagining the classroom scene which Birkerts was involved in made me reflect upon my own experience I recounted in the previous paragraph. In Birkerts’ classroom of college students, he reflects upon them reading Henry James’ novel, Brooksmith. The classroom shares their general understanding of the novel; however, they struggled with the difficult syntax: “…they had difficulty slowing down enough to concentrate on prose of any density… especially uncomfortable with indirect or interior passages, indeed with any deviations from straight plot… they were put off by ironic tone because it flaunted superiority and made them feel that they were missing something” (Birkerts, 19). Birkerts concludes that their discomfort and disdain with the novel was directly due to the ‘momentous paradigm shift’ taking place in society at the time – that is, the shift to electronic media in general from physical media. Birkerts’ general opinion on this shift is one of great pessimism and concern. To sum up his perspective, he states, “…we are, as a culture, as a species, becoming shallower; that we have turned from depth… we are pledging instead to a faith in the web” (Birkerts, 228). In other words, Birkerts emphasizes that we are generally going from a world of depth in physical media, and subsequently physical literature, to a world of surface and superficiality with electronic media and subsequently electronic literature. Birkerts makes it firmly clear throughout his novel that he denounces electronic media and literature, as well as the direction society is headed with these adaptations quickly being welcomed into our societal norms. With this evolution into electronic media and literature being recognized, he makes his conclusion clear about his students not understanding the work which they were reading due to the ‘paradigm shift’ taking place in society.

When we view Birkerts’ experience and opinion of his students following their reading of Brooksmith, we see his quick association between their ability to read being directly due to the electronic media shift taking place in society at the time. His conclusion implies the illiteracy of his students because they cannot read and comprehend this novel on their first read through. He blames this illiteracy on their occupying their time with electronic entertainment. However, Birkerts fails to recognize other possibilities that may exist within the classroom, what may be impacting the student’s literacy – how does he know the students struggled solely because of the technology which they could be occupying their time with instead? Had he considered the possibility of the students struggling with the work because of the literary elements which it was layered with? I felt my own experience bubbling up as I read his and wondered if his students could have been given the same opportunity to have an online tool to help them. I also wondered if he would have made the same conclusions about their literacy skills and, in general, about the electronic world’s effects on our society and literacy, had he found a resource that would’ve benefitted their literacy and comprehension of the text. Birkerts makes no mention of providing tools or assistance to his students – he only moves on to draw the conclusion that they are becoming less literate due to electronic entertainment consuming their time. There are many reasons for which the students may not have comprehended the piece. If the resources had been available at the time with which Birkerts was teaching this classroom, would electronic resources have been used? If the sources benefited the students and their understanding, would Birkerts’ opinion have changed regarding electronic media and literature?

This is not to say, however, that Birkerts’ argument and conclusions are completely unfounded. The electronic world that is quickly evolving and integrating into our society is moving at rapid speeds, rates which we have yet to fully adapt to. There is great consumption of electronic media, especially literature, and it is arguable that the many forms of electronic literature we are consuming are surface level. They are quickly scrolled past, flipped through, and forgotten within moments. And, yet, they leave a lasting impact on us which changes the way we think, feel, and behave. This ultimately unhinges our sense of self. Marshall McLuhan describes the experience in his piece, The Medium is the Massage, which is described in exchanged dialogue between two unidentified characters: “’…and who are you?’ ‘I – I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then’” (McLuhan, 153-154). This quote reflects the experience which one has following frequent exposure to electronic media of all sorts – newspaper, advertising, so on – and how it changes a person’s whole view of themselves within moments, giving them an ungrounded sense of self. So, while Birkerts makes an extreme and serious argument, there is some foundation within it. Electronic media and its many forms, when consumed constantly and mindlessly, can quickly become an out of control, misconstruing experience. The way it effects our literacy is worth mentioning as well – we are constantly being bombarded with these short fragments of sentences and statements, and as mentioned in the above quote from McLuhan’s novel, it can cause us to change several times a day as we are being so frequently harassed with these words and phrases. It has the potential to reconfigure our literacy, should we lean into it and depend on it more and more as time progresses. 

Despite the quotes I’ve included from McLuhan’s novel supporting one side of the spectrum of electronic media, literature, and its effect on literacy, this novel does not wholly argue for this side. This novel exists as a transcendence of this linear and polarizing way of forming opinion on electronic media, literature, and, subtly, its effects on literacy. McLuhan discusses these concepts through imagery, quotation, and other literature mediums. McLuhan’s book is summarized perfectly in this quote: “‘The Medium is the Massage’ is a look-around to see what’s happening. It’s a collide-oscope of interfaced situations” (McLuhan, 10). This quote reflects McLuhan’s piece as the made-up term, a “collide-oscope.” The electronic media world, including electronic literature, is perfectly summarized in this term as well. It is a mixture and amalgamation of many things, including the entire spectrum of good and bad. With literacy as an accompanying term with electronic literature, the effects of literacy from electronic literature are also a “collide-oscope.” It has many effects at once, including good and bad. It exposes us to an incredible array of vocabulary and syntax, and yet can easily become surface-level and undermine our literacy capability. Electronic literature and its effects on literacy cannot be captured in a polar end of either good or bad. It constantly and persistently exists as both, as it is something which is always evolving and changing. To declare it as one end or the other excludes the entire picture of electronic literature and literacy – and this prevents one from fully comprehending these concepts. McLuhan goes on to add, “Our time is a time for crossing barriers, for erasing old categories – for probing around. When two seemingly disparate elements are imaginatively poised, put in apposition in new and unique ways, startling discoveries often result” (McLuhan, 10). This quote further reflects the idea mentioned previously – that electronic media, furthermore electronic literature, is something beyond good and bad. It crosses barriers; it steps forward and out of the physical novel format and into something different. It is exploratory; it is a newly posed medium for which we can express. Literacy, as well, is something which should be probed around with. Literacy is no straight-forward concept of simply being able to read and write. It is something which is constantly explored, always growing with each work completed and word read. McLuhan’s book encourages the reader not to make any haste opinions on the topic of electronic media. It encourages the reader to fully look. To explore. To observe what is taking place with the new medium, and what more we can derive from it in the many directions and shapes it is taking on. The novel exists in indirect opposition to the linear scale which electronic media, literature, and literacy are critiqued on.

McLuhan’s opinion of electronic media steps above and beyond the scale which Birkerts resides on. Birkerts’ opinion exists on a linear, categorical plane which does not capture the complex dimensionality that electronic media, in general, exists on, as well as the intricacy of literacy. Going beyond the linear scale of electronic media and literacy opinion and critique allows one to step back to become an observer, step back to view from outside the box, and can welcome a wider array of opinion and critique which is more thoughtful, less shallow, and more in-depth. When we intertwine the good and the bad of electronic media, we can use it as a platform to step on and look beyond and develop more meaningful and thoughtful opinions on electronic literature and how it impacts literacy.

Works Cited

Birkerts, Sven. “Mahvuhhuhpuh, Coda.” The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, Faber and Faber, New York, New York, 2006, pp. 19–228.

McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, Penguin, London, 2008, pp. 10–154.