The use of literacy in these examples does nothing to change the reality of developing competence in computers or science. However, unless people are interacting in some way with print and relating it to their lives, there is no literacy. Oral language is closely related to written language and is frequently used in conjunction with written language. Literacy also generally entails competence in and control over the use of oral language. These terms were coined, not out of the reality of the users of literacy, but out of a need by educators, policy makers, or administrators to structure a particular discipline for management purposes.
Literacy occurs in social, economic, political, cultural, family, and religious contexts.
Literacy either has or does not have a place for people in these contexts. If it has a place, then it is judged by a person's ability to engage efficiently in completing literacy tasks, not in labelling the person as basic, functional, intermediate, or a Level 2 or Level 3 in literacy. If literacy does not have a place for a person in these contents, then literacy is not even an issue for that person. The Power Behind the Print Technology has changed the face of the earth and the people on it. People are now more likely to be characterized as impersonal, distant, formal, bureaucratic, regulated, or institutional.