Reading Blog #1

After reading the article “Re-Viewing Visual Literacy in the ‘Bain d’ Images’ Era,” I have a completely new understanding of the importance of visual literacy and the superficial way in which images are often viewed. Humans see images every single day whether it’s digital imagery from scrolling through social media or an image/advertisement placed on a cereal box. Due to the high levels of imagery intake that people have, they often view images and digital media with a superficial lens. This article touches heavily on the significance in improving digital literacy, to allow people to understand not only what an image is, but more deeply what it's trying to say and its purpose and impact on the viewer. There is so much importance placed on people being able to read, write and contextualize print forms of media in our schooling systems. I thought that this article was so interesting because it takes that same idea of finding the underlying message in print media and applies it to digital media. In all levels of education more importance needs to be placed on teaching people about digital literacy. Not only do people need to learn what digital literacy is, but also how they can interpret and find meaning in the vast amount of images they view on a daily basis. I believe that this article is highlighting a very important concept, especially in our growing technology based world. The ability to understand and recognize meanings and purpose within digital media is extremely important and will be an essential tool as imagery and digital media continue to expand in our society.