It's not a decline in literacy. It's an expansion of logical thinking.

The reality is that reading has two parts. One part is the intake of words, pictures and diagrams. The other part is the ability to compare and contrast which results in logical thinking. The internet is great for huge intakes of words, pictures and diagrams. Print is the medium of compare and contrast.

At any rate, the fact is that previously the measure of literacy was the ease of intake. The more advanced measure of literacy is the ability to compare and contrast and then make a personal judgment. In that sense, more people than ever before in human history are becoming literate.

It's still a niche market. But it's rapidly growing. The center of growth is in the education industry. That's why the sooner printers help reinvent education, the more clicks for everyone.

Print is a good read:
@Print 21 magazine article
Thursday, 04 June 2009

Is the shift in communication to an online world responsible for a decline in standards of literacy? Phillip Lawrence thinks so and believes that printers should be telling their customers the same thing too."