On Jul 19, 9:33 am, "UR Welcome!" <UR Welcome!_fan_c...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I (Heart) America

Related Audio/Video Downloads
http://breakpoint.org/media/dkContent/6758/071907_BP.mp3

Are Images Making Us Illiterate?

"Film at eleven!"

Olrik

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:33:19 -0400, "UR Welcome!" <UR
Welcome!_fan_club@yahoo.com> wrote:

I (Heart) America

Related Audio/Video Downloads
http://breakpoint.org/media/dkContent/6758/071907_BP.mp3

Are Images Making Us Illiterate?

Are Americans gradually becoming illiterate? It's not because we never
learned to read, but because we're relying more and more on images instead
of words.

A debate about this recently broke out on The Point-BreakPoint's blog
site. One of the BreakPoint staff wrote about the frustrations of
test-driving a new car: "There were many buttons and knobs with pictures
on them instead of words," she wrote. "What did they do? One of them had a
picture with a big "X" painted over it, as if someone had made a mistake
and crossed it out."

Response from our blog readers was fierce.

"You've hit on one of my biggest pet peeves," one blogger wrote. "I
experienced the exact same thing with a rental [car] recently with the
most perplexing image. [It] looked like a tire on fire. Why would anyone
want to push that button?"

Another blogger noted that 300 years ago, "Businesses created signs [with]
an image that would tell people what their business was, such as a shoe,"
because most people were illiterate. Today, he says, "because we are
relying more and more on images, we are becoming illiterate."

It's the same story with cell phones and TV remotes-which is probably who
so many of us have difficulty using them. If you order furniture from
Ikea, the assembly instructions include no words at all: Just a series of
pictures of how to put furniture together. It's like trying to read
hieroglyphs. At McDonalds restaurants, illiteracy is assumed: the cash
registers contain little pictures of burgers and fries. The reason, in
part, is that more and more immigrants do not speak English.

This increasing reliance on images over words can lead, not only to
colossal frustration, but to spiritual illiteracy. As the late Neil
Postman wrote in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the medium of
communication actually helps shape the way people think. The printed word
requires sustained attention, logical analysis, and an active imagination.
But television and video games, with their fast-moving images, encourage a
short attention span, disjointed thinking, and purely emotional responses.

Postman says he first discovered this connection when reading the Ten
Commandments. He was struck by the words: "You shall not make for yourself
a graven image." He realized that the idea of a universal deity cannot be
expressed in images but only in words. As Postman writes, "The God of the
Jews was to exist in the Word and through the Word, an unprecedented
conception requiring the highest order of abstract thinking."

Christians are meant to have an ongoing conversation with God. We address
Him in the language of prayer, and He addresses us in the language of
Scripture.

Today, missionaries in non-literate societies reduce the native language
to writing and teach people to read by reading the Bible. But here in the
West we are in danger of coming full circle: The visual media, and our
increasing reliance on images in everyday life, may ultimately undermine
literacy, transforming us back into an image-based culture.

If that happens, will biblical faith still flourish?

Yes We have Bible on Tape, Bible on CD even Bible on computer that
will read it to you. I think many parts of this image thing are
because we have so many people in the USA that can't speak or write
english. So some have stared using images in place of words.

Maybe it is better to use a image in a "rental car" than take a chance
you are sued because a non-english reading Person got into a crash.

Matt

It's something to think about when we're attempted to gorge on television
or video games-and a reason to fight back against our culture's insistence
that virtually everything can be reduced to an image. Give your family a
good lesson: read a book together.

By Chuck Colson

------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Further Reading and Information

Anne Morse, "What Does This Button Do?" The Point, 21 June 2007.

Diane Singer, "Death By Cultural Illiteracy," The Point, 14 June 2007.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of
Show Business, (Viking Press, 1986).

Shashi Tharoor, "Illiterate America: 44 American Men and Women are
Functionally Illiterate," Newsweek International, 30 September 2002.

Kathy Kemp, "Hardest Thing for Tough Guy Was Reading," Birmingham News, 8
July 2007.

Jacob Stein, "Spiritual Illiteracy," Jewish Philosopher, 12 June 2007.

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:33:19 -0400, "UR Welcome!" <UR
Welcome!_fan_club@yahoo.com> wrote:

I (Heart) America

Related Audio/Video Downloads
http://breakpoint.org/media/dkContent/6758/071907_BP.mp3

Are Images Making Us Illiterate?

Are Americans gradually becoming illiterate? It's not because we never
learned to read, but because we're relying more and more on images instead
of words.

A debate about this recently broke out on The Point-BreakPoint's blog
site. One of the BreakPoint staff wrote about the frustrations of
test-driving a new car: "There were many buttons and knobs with pictures
on them instead of words," she wrote. "What did they do? One of them had a
picture with a big "X" painted over it, as if someone had made a mistake
and crossed it out."

Response from our blog readers was fierce.

"You've hit on one of my biggest pet peeves," one blogger wrote. "I
experienced the exact same thing with a rental [car] recently with the
most perplexing image. [It] looked like a tire on fire. Why would anyone
want to push that button?"

Another blogger noted that 300 years ago, "Businesses created signs [with]
an image that would tell people what their business was, such as a shoe,"
because most people were illiterate. Today, he says, "because we are
relying more and more on images, we are becoming illiterate."

It's the same story with cell phones and TV remotes-which is probably who
so many of us have difficulty using them. If you order furniture from
Ikea, the assembly instructions include no words at all: Just a series of
pictures of how to put furniture together. It's like trying to read
hieroglyphs. At McDonalds restaurants, illiteracy is assumed: the cash
registers contain little pictures of burgers and fries. The reason, in
part, is that more and more immigrants do not speak English.

This increasing reliance on images over words can lead, not only to
colossal frustration, but to spiritual illiteracy. As the late Neil
Postman wrote in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the medium of
communication actually helps shape the way people think. The printed word
requires sustained attention, logical analysis, and an active imagination.
But television and video games, with their fast-moving images, encourage a
short attention span, disjointed thinking, and purely emotional responses.

Postman says he first discovered this connection when reading the Ten
Commandments. He was struck by the words: "You shall not make for yourself
a graven image." He realized that the idea of a universal deity cannot be
expressed in images but only in words. As Postman writes, "The God of the
Jews was to exist in the Word and through the Word, an unprecedented
conception requiring the highest order of abstract thinking."

Christians are meant to have an ongoing conversation with God. We address
Him in the language of prayer, and He addresses us in the language of
Scripture.

Today, missionaries in non-literate societies reduce the native language
to writing and teach people to read by reading the Bible. But here in the
West we are in danger of coming full circle: The visual media, and our
increasing reliance on images in everyday life, may ultimately undermine
literacy, transforming us back into an image-based culture.

If that happens, will biblical faith still flourish?

Yes We have Bible on Tape, Bible on CD even Bible on computer that
will read it to you. I think many parts of this image thing are
because we have so many people in the USA that can't speak or write
english. So some have stared using images in place of words.

Maybe it is better to use a image in a "rental car" than take a chance
you are sued because a non-english reading Person got into a crash.

Matt

It's something to think about when we're attempted to gorge on television
or video games-and a reason to fight back against our culture's insistence
that virtually everything can be reduced to an image. Give your family a
good lesson: read a book together.

By Chuck Colson

------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Further Reading and Information

Anne Morse, "What Does This Button Do?" The Point, 21 June 2007.

Diane Singer, "Death By Cultural Illiteracy," The Point, 14 June 2007.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of
Show Business, (Viking Press, 1986).

Shashi Tharoor, "Illiterate America: 44 American Men and Women are
Functionally Illiterate," Newsweek International, 30 September 2002.

Kathy Kemp, "Hardest Thing for Tough Guy Was Reading," Birmingham News, 8
July 2007.

Jacob Stein, "Spiritual Illiteracy," Jewish Philosopher, 12 June 2007.

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Yes We have Bible on Tape, Bible on CD even Bible on computer that
will read it to you. I think many parts of this image thing are
because we have so many people in the USA that can't speak or write
english. So some have stared using images in place of words.

UR Welcome! wrote:

I (Heart) America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ynQH63IF0U



Glenn