"Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?"
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Mackay’s question arrives with the politeness of a dinner-party prompt and the bite of an accusation. Framed as a gentle “Is it possible,” it’s really a cultural diagnosis: literacy isn’t just being neglected in classrooms, it’s being made optional by the surrounding ecosystem. The rhetorical move is smart because it dodges the easiest scapegoat (lazy kids, failing teachers) and points instead to incentives. If a teenager can scroll, stream, message, and search their way through daily life, the old bargain of literacy - do the hard work now to participate later - starts to look like a bad deal.
The subtext is less about reading for pleasure and more about the shrinking payoff for precision. “Entertained and informed” implies that information has been re-packaged into formats that minimize friction: audio, video, snippets, interfaces that translate complexity into taps and swipes. “Communicate effectively” is the loaded phrase. Mackay concedes functionality: people can get what they need, coordinate plans, express identity. He’s challenging whether that counts as literacy in any robust sense, or whether we’ve confused fluency in platforms with fluency in language.
Context matters: as an Australian social commentator, Mackay has long tracked how consumer culture reshapes values. This line fits a broader anxiety in affluent societies where convenience becomes ideology. The question isn’t nostalgic for dusty canon; it’s warning that when literacy becomes “rudimentary,” so do the civic tools literacy supports - sustained attention, argument, skepticism, the ability to spot when you’re being sold something.
The subtext is less about reading for pleasure and more about the shrinking payoff for precision. “Entertained and informed” implies that information has been re-packaged into formats that minimize friction: audio, video, snippets, interfaces that translate complexity into taps and swipes. “Communicate effectively” is the loaded phrase. Mackay concedes functionality: people can get what they need, coordinate plans, express identity. He’s challenging whether that counts as literacy in any robust sense, or whether we’ve confused fluency in platforms with fluency in language.
Context matters: as an Australian social commentator, Mackay has long tracked how consumer culture reshapes values. This line fits a broader anxiety in affluent societies where convenience becomes ideology. The question isn’t nostalgic for dusty canon; it’s warning that when literacy becomes “rudimentary,” so do the civic tools literacy supports - sustained attention, argument, skepticism, the ability to spot when you’re being sold something.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
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