Before writing and literacy became the norm, we relied on traditional oral practices—good old-fashioned conversations where people spoke back and forth. J.D. Applen (2013) digs into the work of Walter Ong in his chapter “Speaking, Writing, and Literacy” from Old Media, New Media, and Knowledge.
Ong uses the term “orality” to describe spoken communication, and “literacy” to refer to written language. As we continue diving deeper into this digital age, I’ve noticed how many people seem to be losing their ability to express themselves orally, finding it easier to communicate through writing. Applen touches on this when he discusses Plato’s Phaedrus, where (ironically, in a written text) Plato lamented that writing would lead to a loss of memory. Plato argued, “For this invention [writing] will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory” (140).
In that same breath, Applen questions the validity of writing itself, pointing out that when people misinterpret your written words, you can’t defend yourself in real time the way you could in a conversation. As Ong says, because writing relies on external technology, it’s “unchanging, fixed, and removed from the living human life world” (Ong 89).
The Decline of Orality
The art of orality, as I said earlier, feels like it’s becoming a lost skill—the ability to speak freely and effectively. Think about it: have you ever been to a wedding, graduation, or birthday party and heard someone give a speech? Pre-written speeches, no matter how heartfelt, often don’t have the same punch or emotion as something spoken off the cuff. The ability to improvise a meaningful speech on the spot is a skill that not many people have. Sure, fear of public speaking plays a role, but I also think our lack of everyday face-to-face communication has made this harder for many of us.
Applen also mentions the reverse: how often do we feel disappointed by a movie adaptation of a book? The written word and spoken word have their own strengths and limitations, and it seems like we’re losing balance between the two.
All of this makes me wonder: Can you be literate in writing but not in orality? I definitely think that being literate in both areas is essential to fully grasping and sharing knowledge.
Read my last blog post: Defining Digital Literacy
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