Man, Computer, and Publishing in the 1980s: 'Digital Humanity' Between Computer Literacy and Mass Informatic Literature.

Abstract

The 1980s marked the decade of development for electronic publishing, which initially emerged as the rough product of the convergence of three factors: telematics, which gave rise to new editorial products, databases, and both local and international networks designed to manage the flow of information; the appropriation of telematic concepts and resources by libraries and bookstores; and the automation of key processes related to production and distribution. The computer was the enabling force that allowed these elements to interact within the publishing and cultural context of the time, driving the widespread diffusion of informatics and its integration into language and into reading and writing practices. This article explores the national and international debate surrounding the concept of Computer Literacy, from the moment it became clear that both the economic and cultural spheres were moving toward exponential technological implementation and a progressive domestication of digital tools. In this context, studies and discussions on Computer Literacy — which intensified between 1982 and 1985, and flared up intermittently throughout the 1990s and 2000s — tend to converge around its definitions, applications, and interpretations. They represent both a reaction to and a critical perspective on the transition from a paper-based society, grounded in printed materials, to a paperless one, in which books and newspapers in their traditional formats were increasingly perceived by advocates of the Computer Literacy Credo as obstacles to progress. Furthermore, these studies intersect with the possible redefinition of the roles of writing and reading in an information society, as well as with the sudden emergence of mass-market computer literature, which reached its peak between 1983 and 1987.