In earlier cultures, when writing was something only a very few could do, considering it a technology was not so difficult. Nowadays, it’s so present in our societies, that we have forgotten it’s a human creation, and we seem to take it as something granted, that is simply there naturally.
Walter J. Ong discusses this matter in his book titled “Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word”. Ong was an American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher, widely known for his writings on orality and rhetoric.
The printer, the television, the telephone, the radio, or the computer, are also ways of “technologizing” words. But writing is essential in that the rest wouldn’t exist without its help. As Ong once stated, “Writing is in a way the most drastic of the three technologies. It initiated what print and computers only continue.”.
References:
- Walter J. Ong. (2008, November 7). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- Writing Fictions, Making Texts. (1996, July 28). In Department of Liberal Studies, Duke University by Michael Shumate. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
- ONG, Walter J., Oralidad y Escritura. (2008, March). In CIBERAPRENDIZAJES. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
