Visual literacy in our digital age is something we see every day. Our very profile pictures on Facebook are a form of digital literacy. To be literate through image is to understand how to appeal without narrative. The main point of digital literacy is to evoke something using multiple forms of sensory input with doing so in a gratuitous way. This has opened a new age of what is considered literacy in our culture. We are no longer creatures who only communicate through narrative but are adept at speaking through visuals and sound.
We see media that is created with a purpose, this purpose can be to evoke emotion, or cause significant thought on a subject. We see commercials that appeal to our emotions, and instead of getting us to buy the product we invest in the company. Emotions related to the media is sometimes observed through satirical lenses. Multiple satirical shows use visual means and world-building in order to generate thought and display a message. These uses of visual literacy can express a political, humanistic, or theistic viewpoint through means that engage more than one of the senses. Visual literacy gives us multiple ways of expressing these viewpoints, and may even enhance the narrative.
Generation Z is the new frontier of digital literacy. This modern group of people have a cynical outlook of the world and express that through the use of visual literacy. Tik Tok is used by Generation Z to make videos surrounding dark humor with a satirical message of the world behind it, it is thought to suit generation Z on account of their shorter attention spans coinciding with the shorter videos on the site. The app is also a melting pot for multiple cultural facets, this allows users to create fun mashups outside of a defined genre. Like generation Z, Tik Tok does not take itself seriously. Generation Z has become known for nihilistic humor pertaining to events occurring in the world, and Tik Tok allows for means in which to express that (Wheeler 2018).
Tik Tok is honored in some cases as a source of visual literacy in schools. Some teachers allow students to do projects through their Tik Tok accounts, making videos on historical events learned about in class. By using apps such as Tik Tok, it is thought to keep the student engaged. A teacher in Maryland asked students to use Tik Tok on a field trip they had gone on, in order to document what they learned. One Spanish teacher asked his students to make Tik Tok videos in Spanish for projects in the class (Klein 2019). These are uses of both visual literacies in the classroom that reflect the move into digital literacy.
Millennials were the generation that grew into technology, Generation Z was the generation raised in the digital age. I would even argue that Generation Z was born with digital literacy as a second language in the home. The main form of communication for those born from 1995 onward is digital. Millennials were raised in a time when technology was developed and being introduced to them. The aftereffect of this has caused a generation to be less narratively based and more based on visual literacy and sensory storytelling.
Rhetoriticians have begun to do research on visual literacy and rhetoric. The two strongly intersect in the use of media today. Sometimes a verbal message will be a three-word slogan aided by an image, wherein this case the image does most of the communicating. When we apply for a job using sites such as LinkedIn, the information we have put up says a lot about us; financial competency, education, how we have applied that education to our everyday lives. Something that sells all of the narratives we write is our photo. Earning a job can depend on your physical appearance, as it can affect your social standing as a person (Beerman 2015). This bridges the usage between visual literacy and visual rhetoric. The use of an image through digital means evokes the employer to believe that a candidate has potential for the job they are hiring for based upon appearance.
Visual literacy as a narrative is a tool in both technical and creative fields. We see the applications through scientific graphs and silent episodes in television series. As human beings, I believe we are visual creatures and because of that are drawn to this form of literacy. In earlier stages of humanity, we wrote on walls with images and now we write on digital walls in similar ways. This all centers back to every person being able to be evoked by an image; a sunset, a painting, or a place. We as human beings were born with the potential for our eyes to speak to us when our own words and minds cannot.
Bibliography
Wheeler J. 21 Dec 2018. Why TikTok is social media’s new Gen Z darling. Gen Z Insights – Presented by UNiDAYS. [accessed 2020 Feb 22]. Available from https://www.genzinsights.com/why-tiktok-is-social-medias-new-gen-z-darling
Klein A. 26 Nov 2019. TikTok: Powerful Teaching Tool or Classroom Management Nightmare? Education Week. [accessed 2020 Feb 22]. Available from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/11/13/tiktok-powerful-teaching-tool-or-classroom-management.html
Beerman R. May 2015. CONTAINING FATNESS: BODIES, MOTHERHOOD, AND CIVIC IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY U.S. CULTURE. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. [accessed 2020 Feb]:1–246.
