Martinez Dettinger: Orality and Literacy

 Walter Ong explores several fascinating concepts in Orality and Literacy, but his concept that the shift from oral culture to literate culture provided a parallel shift from communal conceptions of the self to an individualized one is particularly intriguing. Ong states 

"The evolution of consciousness through human history is marked by growth in articulate attention to the interior of the individual person as distanced—though not necessarily separated—from the communal structures in which each person is necessarily enveloped."

He creates the conceptual framework that literacy bring the focus of the individual from the external which surrounds them as it does those co-constituting the environment with them into an individual experience that is not inherently communal. This is because the written word allows for an individual perception in a way that an oral experience does not. Furthermore, this is because the written word allows for conceptions of the abstract in a way that orality does not because it is rooted in shared experiences that are inherently founded in the common reality of the physical environment. 

I found this fascinating because it explains so much about the functioning of our society now. The primary example of this in the modern technological age that came to my mind was how emojis and emoticons were developed to express tone and meaning through the written word. Often, miscommunications happen over digital conversation because tone and meaning cannot be as easily conveyed as it can be through a sensual experience of conversation where tone of voice or facial expression can help in conveying meaning. These tools are not as readily available when communication happens via written word so someone's individual experience reading a letter or an email might be vastly different than the author or a third-party reading it. I can't help but wonder if this is one reason why many children growing up in the so-called 'digital' age show trends of feeling isolated or depressed when modes of communication are abundant. Is it because the perceived reality and our own insecurities are too easily projected onto the communication we read because it lacks representation of the tone and meaning that the author intends? If this is true with digital communication it must also have been true with letters before the age of the telephone and email. How did long-distance couples during the Civil War or WWI convey meaning or tone in their letter. Even there lies evidence of drawing on sensual interaction to achieve this goal. An example of that is women spraying perfume (olfactory sense) or enclosing a locket of hair (tactile) or a photo (visual) to remind their lovers of their affection. Does digital communication restrict this to the point of an isolating form of communication or do we just need to send more selfies and become more inventive? 




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