Why did literacy increase after Johann Gutenberg ibvented the printing press?
350249
Before the printing press, all copies were made by hand.  Copying by hand takes a long time and the copies are never exactly alike.  It was also very expensive.\n\nThe printing press made copying easier, faster, and cheaper.  Therefore, copies could be mass-produced and more people could afford to have them.
549782
Hands down--no debate--the greatest invention, the invention that has altered the course of humanity more than any other--is the printing press.  How could ANY of the later advancements have been developed without the power to reproduce the printed word?
45128
You can read it here...\n\nhttp://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/grexp10.txt
1169680
The Bible was written by people who are known to make their stories seem more exciting by adding violence.
187087
Churches began using stained glass windows, paintings, and other art centuries ago when the general population was illiterate. It was a way to teach those who couldn't read about their religion.
195395
Have you see some of the spelling (I mean mis-spelling) of words and the the improper sentence structure here on *Answers?  Do you think this is helping us develop our literacy skills?  \n\nThe only way that I can think of how technology is improving our literacy skills, is we can do instant access to a wide range of reference sources on the Internet.  \n\nOne excellant site is:  www.refdesk.com  \n\nIt makes it easier to look up words, people, subjects, etc. than having to go get the dictionary and try to find the word.  So, being easier than the old way, I would say people are more likely now to look up words, so that would probably increase literacy.
340475
It has been called a revolution, and it's true. Before that invention, copying a book was too expensive and a book was a treasure itself.\n\nAfter the invention of the printing press schools, libraries, universities, etc. could have a cheap copy of every book they wanted so they appeared everywere. Also publishing a book was a lot easier so many scholars could write and publish their works.\n\nThe impact was too great to express with words. Without a printing press, science and culture wouldn't have advanced and we could still be in middle ages.
461589
As the society drifts further from its Judeo-Christian moorings, it loses its reason to care about real literacy.  The shift is from the word (or more appropriately, the proposition) to the multimedia "image," which can include words (as a soundbite) but is predominantly visual and always aimed at emotive, rather than mental, impact.  With a vast educational establishment, it has taken a while for spelling and grammar to become affected, but they have been.  Absent another Great Awakening, look for it to become worse instead of better, and look for the church and the synagogue to once again become repositories of print culture (and therefore, Western civilization).\nWhy the connection with Judeo-Christianity?  The adherents of propositionally revealed religion have been the custodians and promoters of literacy wherever they went.  The history of the modern literacy movement *is,* to a large extent, the history of what Christians have done.  Even today, virtually the only people willing to help reduce an unwritten language to writing and teach a people group to read their own language are Christian missionaries.
1040797
Well language evolved and became far more efficient.  It began with the pictographs early civilizations typically carved into tablets which were heavy and awkward to transport information on.  Later you had a sort of syllabic system--not individual letters, but symbols for each possible sound combination, for example coo, soo, doo who, fa, ca, la da, and so on.  This was an improvement, particularly coupled with the introduction of papyrus, and sort of paper made from reeds that made recording and transporting information easier still.  Later on, you have the development of an actual alphabet, as we use today, wherein a very small number of characters could be combined to represent all sorts of sounds.  Couple that with the invention of the printing press and you suddenly had a very efficient means of recording and distributing information.
1029224
Good question.  I think the short answer is education.\nEven years ago, europe had more schools for its people.\n\nThat education enabled the people to discover more inventions\nand technology which over years compounded on itself\nto create even more improvements to their quality of life.\n\nIt also helped that the north American continent had gold\nand oil.
466834
The typesetting I know about is obsolete by now.  \n\nAt some point in printing history, it was the old method of literally gathering the metal letters and placing them on a wooden frame to make up the written word. Printing was done by placing a blank piece of paper over the layout of the letters and pressing the paper onto the inked letters(thus the term printing press).  This was improved upon over the decades to the point that a man could type out whatever he needed and the machine set the letters up into a plate. That plate printed out the pages. But a lot of this stuff is quite obsolete now, but still possible if the equipment is at hand.\n\nWith the use of computer systems, everyone now can have their own "printing press".
679351
I consider the great invention for mankind is the writing and more specifically the alphabet!\nThe inventor of the alphabet was living on the island Crete, south of Athens, north of Egypt, some 4,000 years ago!
35548
Gutenberg Bible on February 23, 1455.
595168
The need for literacy has always been the same, however, for people to actually follow through with becoming, and working with our children to become literate is an increasing problem in our society. more and more people grow up without the literary skills needed to get through life, and really succeed. I read every day to get information, and I am proud of that. I grew up without a television, and all I had was books! I think it should be that way for every child. They spend too much time in front of the T.V. while their brains are just developing and in the most need of literature, and people who are devoted to helping them learn. I love to read, it is the cornerstone of my development, and my future. And we all know, a building won't stand without a cornerstone of sorts! I also know though, there's nothing like hands on experience to help you understand what you read, if possible. It helps children connect the dots so to speak. (I am quite long-winded, lol, but I hope it'll help you out!)
135600
Melvil Dewey, efficiency expert and inventor of the Dewey decimal system, proposed in 1871 to add nearly two hundred new words to the English language, so that more questions could be answered with a single word.\n\nHis proposal has not yet been adopted.
942275
The printing press.  It made the sharing of knowledge and information much easier and more widespread.  Your question and these answer are electronic extensions of the process begun with the printing press.  Pretty amazing!
179285
It increased productivity and led to increased wealth eventually as GDP per capita rose. This created the conditions for the rise of the middle class such as more professional and management jobs. In turn, bourgeois and mercantile views became more powerful as opposed to that of the aristocracy. This led to reforms as the Reform Act of 1832 shifting representation to the industrialised areas.