The invention of writing was a major milestone for humanity. It allowed us to write down knowledge that would later be passed down to others, most likely via books. Writing is seen as technology because it exists outside our minds, it isn’t just passed down by word of mouth but written words. This leads to the idea of Secondary Orality.
What is secondary orality?
The word Orality has been used to characterize speech. It’s different than literacy, the word used for written language. Both of these methods of comuncation affect the way we think and understand the world.
J. D. Applen defines Secondary orality as such in “Old Media, New Media and Knowledge.” ” “Secondary orality” describes the speaking and listening skills of people influenced by their literate background, or how anyone who could read this sentence would speak and hear things.”
To simplify, a person’s background can affect how they would speak and hear things. For example, someone who primarily has read shorter and more choppy sentences would communicate in the same way. Or, more obviously, someone who never learned how to read will struggle to speak and vice versa.
It’s best shown via radio or television, where they’re often reading from prepared material. Secondary orality, compared to primary orality (which describes the way people spoke, heard, and thought before the age of literacy) has more preparedness compared to the latter.
But What does that mean for digital texts?
Of course, newer devices such as cell phones and laptops have changed the way we see writing. Text on a screen is much more interactive in nature. We can change everything from the background to the font itself, usually done to make it easier to read. But the main thing to take away is we can ‘assume’ the role of the writer.
We can affect the text itself to change how we see fit. Whether for visibility reasons or to better fit our own writing, we can be the ones “telling” the story.
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