A Better Pencil

As the internet advances, we become more and more dependent on it. It's interesting because even thinking back to the beginning of high school for me, which was in 2008, the amount the internet has evolved is incredible. It's hard to imagine going through college without a laptop nowadays, and as a DTC major it's interesting that this wasn't even a consideration for a major in 2008. Now nearly everyone has access to the internet within 20 seconds, because it's usually in our pockets. It's rare that people don't have smart phones now, and eventually it'll be impossible to buy a phone that doesn't have access to the internet.

As we become more dependent in the internet, we are able to retain less information, but we have access to any information we could possibly need. It seems like an instant from the point where the internet was being introduced to the point we are at now. The internet is advancing faster and faster as time moves forward, and humans are going to become more and more dependent on it.

Achebe - Things Fall Apart

The definition of a Cool medium is one that offers a smaller amount of information but gives the viewer a lot to do. I think the Achebe book is definitely a cool medium, especially in this circumstance. This book has little to do with Digital Technology and Culture, but there are ways that it can be compared. For instance the culture in this book is on the verge of change just like in the book by Ong, "Orality and Literacy." Change can take a big toll on the way a society functions. In Ong's book the introduction of literacy changed the way everyone thought, and the conversion to Christianity changed a lot in the society of the community in Achebe's book. When any big change occurs in a society there is going to be some resistance, and I think that is apparent in both books.

Ong second half

I don't know if it was so much the expansion of literacy that altered the way people think so much as printing. The affect printing had on the general public was huge because it gave everyone access the written things. The need for memorization slowly began to dwindle. When writing very first became a tool, people still had to rely on orality. Even when they would read, they would read out loud. Statements, speeches, knowledge, etc were all passed on orally even with the technology they had to write. After the printing press began, it became easier to make copies of different things and as time passes, the need for memorization becomes less. Nowadays the need for memorization is almost extinct considering the majority of the population has access to any knowledge at the swipe of a finger tip. Most people in the western world have access to a printer with the luxury of being able to print anything they could ever imagine. I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, the amount of knowledge we can have access to is vastly larger than it was even ten years ago. On the other hand, however, the amount of knowledge we can retain in our memories alone is slowly becoming less and less.

Ong 1st half

"Oral expression can exist and mostly has existed without any writing at all, writing never without orality."

This is an interesting quote from the first part of  Orality and Literacy. I suppose it is something we have all understood, but it is not however something most of us have thought about. It's hard to imagine this world without writing. There isn't even a time for most of us in which we can remember not knowing how to write. Neither writing nor speech will ever go extinct, however one can be more dominant than the other. For now, writing is definitely becoming a dominant form of communication. It isn't writing in the original sense, it is shortened forms.Yes, there are books as there always will be, but that is not my point. What I am referring to is social media, texting, emails, etc. Gone are the days where we wait by a phone for someone to call to make plans, now it's instantaneous through text messages. This generation has a much harder time going through processes such as interviews, calling strangers, and so on, because we are so used to the impersonal form of communication that is texting/emailing.

Even when we are to give a speech, it is written out in front of us. Ong refers to this as the term, "Oral Literacy."  It is hard for us to imagine a time before writing, and it is a frightening thought to consider going up in front of a crowd to give a speech without any form of written notes or power point. There are still a vast majority of languages that don't have a written form, but in our society it is impossible to imagine a world without it.