I've just been visiting with my niece, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, about our recent reads. She brought up the term "aliteracy"-- having the ability to read, but choosing not to. I have a hard time with the thought that we can forsake reading of text and forsake critical thinking without making ourselves vulnerable to manipulation by people who create spin, for example.
After talking with her, I did a bit of reading about "post-literacy" as well -- the development of media-based communications, which could question whether we would need textual literacy skills and came across this blog post:
http://somanybooksblog.com/2009/03/16/are-we-headed-toward-a-post-literate-world/
I don't think that literature will go away (though it's form may change) or fully believe that post-literacy would need to fully ignore textual forms that might inform new mediums. I'd still make the case for textual literacy as an educational under-girding for wherever we are headed.
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