In the chapter “speaking,writing, and literacy” from Old Media, New Media, and Knowledge by J.D Applen he introduces Walter Ong’s idea of orality and literacy. According to Walter Ong orality is to describe spoken communication and literacy refers to written language. Written language is always developing over time. For example nowadays we always use different slang forms. We use slang to express ourselves and anyone in your community will probably understand what you are saying. These new words become part of the language and therefore that’s why you can find them in dictionaries as well. Have you ever heard the slang “bussin” this word now means when something is really good. Or the word “era” which now means a phase of something. These are all examples of slang. They might be hard to convey logically but they do make sense.
Plato’s ideas
Walter Ong tells us this idea that in oral cultures “knowledge, once acquired had to be constantly repeated or it would be lost” and then the Greeks around the time of Plato were the first to fix an oral speech in written form and by writing them down it saved them time and they could move on to other things.
This lead Plato to say that “for this invention (writing) will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory” this essentially means that when we write things down we are bound to forget something along the way of trying to memorize and write at the same time. Whereas the idea of exchanging ideas orally essentially leads to people sharing and contributing together. For example, if you’re studying for an exam in a history class instead of just listening to a lecture and taking down notes you can discuss the main events that happened in that chapter with a friend. By asking each other questions and explaining your ideas and perspectives it will help you reinforce your material.
Read my last blog post: Digital Literacy
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