Literacy, by definition is a noun meaning the ability to read and write. To take it a step
further, literacy also requires the ability for further knowledge and interest, writing
coherently, and thinking critically about the written word. Key to all literacy is developing
reading, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and
decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. In today
technological society, the concept of literacy has expanded to include the media and
electronic text. Since the 1990s, when the Internet came into wide use in the United States,
some have asserted that the definition of literacy should include the ability to use tools
such as web browsers, word processing programs, and text messages. Similar expanded
skill sets have been called multimedia literacy, computer literacy, information literacy, and
technological literacy. Literacy is a very complex subject, without literacy life would be
very different. Hence the various initiatives to end or lessen the illiteracy rate in various
countries through out the world. Literacy is not an independent skill set, you gain literacy
from people in your life and experience that you encounter. During this essay I will reflect
on how I came to read and write, how that was shaped by my environment and
technologies that I’ve used along the way.