The place where low literacy leads to

So today I was waiting on my children as they were being tutored and a question popped into my head: 

What happens to a country when literacy rates decrease? 

I can make some pretty bold assumptions about what happens. I'm not so sure this isn't being seen right now where there is still overall strong literacy but Generation Y was mostly taught using "whole language" and really, I think we are now paying the price for this. I bet a teacher who taught for a long time could address this subject quite well. 

 Another question is, does anyone study the question of what happens when literacy decreases overall?

I wasn't able to find a lot on the internet so far.  I believe there are folks out there who know about the history of literacy but it doesn't seem to be anything anyone is looking at much at this point.  Sort of an ivory tower type of thing for the moment.

One possibility of decreased literacy would be a population with more vulnerable minds overall, people who could be more easily swayed by television advertizing, things they see other people doing and saying in the mass media and dangerously narrow religious viewpoints.

Still, just because one can read, has a college degree, goes to the local library and so on, this doesn't in and of itself make a person more intelligent or more able to screen things out that lack value.  But not being able to read seem to be very large obstacle to gaining perspective.

Ideas are well expressed with the written word. 

Take films for example. Ideas that ring true on paper don't translate well into films as proven by fantastic books that are made into mediocre films (this happens more often than not). I don't think it's a lack of quality in the film industry,  I think it's hard to contain what the written word can do in a film.  Somehow film is limited in it's ability to get the nuances of the written word across to the audience.  Much of the message of a book is lost in a film in most cases.  A good story line translates into a good film because film depends on story but the subtleties are lost if the dialogue doesn't somehow explain them.

If we were to let go of reading as a priority in learning it is difficult to imagine the overall advancement of society.  More complex thoughts would certainly be more difficult to get across to the public.  Concepts would have to be "in a nutshell", almost always.

I wonder if the mind possibly wanders less when it is engaged in reading than in listening?  Certainly books on tape are an excellent way to get information across but I wonder if people retain as well generally speaking, what they heard in a book on tape?  Possibly it depends on the person and the situation.

It is also hard to imagine many gains being made in society when vulnerable people can be easily swayed by mistruths, manipulation and lack of information. 

I should probably reveal here that I basically detest television.  I went for awhile without even owning one and the only time I ever missed it was when I heard tornado sirens (still, there was radio).

My family likes television, but myself personally, I could live without it quite happily.  I hate the noise, I think television news is practically useless and most of all I look down on commericals and television advertising.  Snobbery?  I hope not.

I grew up with television,  the shows undoubtably shaped my childhood experience and my experience as a girl growing up in society in the 1970's and 80's but I'd like to think I wasn't completely brainwashed by it.   Obviously it wasn't as sophisticated as it is now.  Also, I have since learned that the time I was turning into a teenager my demographic was the least targeted by television, I see that as a blessing now.

It astonishes me that one can have so many channels of television and still there is nothing at all to watch but junk.  I mean nothing at all of value to watch out of hundreds of channels.  Doesn't that say something?

To me it seems that these days we can choose our poision as far as information goes.  Internet articles are so abundant our whole society has turned into the Tower of Babble.  It's difficult to know which news sources to trust. Everyone is talking at once all the time and it's hard to weed through to find the nuggets of helpful truth. Occasionally I feel like I've found something good but then usually, well most often I'm disappointed.   

So this was just a question, what happens when literacy decreases and,  well, I don't know but it looks like I'm going to be finding out.