Social Networks

Helmers defends her interest in memorial Web sites by claiming that the sites make an important contribution to cultural knowledge: If cultural literacy means coming to terms with the texts that confront us in daily life, these memorial home pages are just such texts (para. 8). Mark Edmundson and Mary Louise Pratt are also interested in what counts as knowledge and how the analysis of non-scholarly texts (movies, baseball cards, Web sites) might be part of becoming culturally literate. Write an essay in which you stake out your own position in this debate, drawing on the insights of these three authors. What are the implications for education if we believe that analyzing non-scholarly texts is important, or not important, to becoming an educated person?