The most interesting aspect of the Interface of the Word metaphor is the question mark at the end of the illustration. What is the future of the word? By labeling the advent of the “electronic word” secondary orality, Ong suggests that the visual will be dethroned by the oral. When we look at technology today the future is not completely clear; however, one thing is for certain: the word is expanding in new ways. Technology is transforming not only composition and education, but in a broader sense, it is changing the way society thinks.
Both visual and oral components are flourishing in the fields of composition, pedagogy, and communication. For example, the dominance of the visual word is still obvious in the record number of books that are published each year. Emails, blogging, text messaging, and web 2.0 have become dominant forms of communication. In addition, scholarly research may be done primarily through the computer today, but it still relies on text based information. The immense popularity of iTunes, the emergence of audiobooks, and the availability of lectures, speeches, and podcasts online has re-established the oral word as a major mode of cognition. While both oral and visual make strong independent claims for authority in language, the hybridization of the two may be the most interesting aspect yet. The use of webcams and video sharing (YouTube) cannot be overlooked. Combined oral and visual modes of communication are becoming some of the most commonly used forms of communication and are becoming much more important in tertiary education. (However, few secondary or primary schools actually fully utilize this technology.)
Regardless, Ong is right: this transformation of the word is changing the way that we think. Further evidence of the move from print to electronic culture can be seen in the radically changing newspaper industry. The demand for print editions of newspapers is quickly diminishing, so companies are turning to the web to deliver their information and opinions. We are now a society of excessive multitasking and rampant attention deficit disorder. We imbibe information in short bursts: we read a few lines here, watch a 50 second video clip there, and we’re set. I’m not criticizing this revolution in society, nor was Ong. It’s just fascinating to take a step back sometimes and look at how much the word (and world) is changing.
Ong on YouTube link
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Eric, you did a great job painting a nuanced picture of Walter Ong and presenting some exciting ideas. It is hard to say what the future holds for the written word. You point out the many forms that visual rhetoric and discourse take today, but perhaps the second orality is just the beginning of another cycle and there may be a third orality or a fourth in some future millennium. I keep reading that writing is dying, but as you point out here, the written word is alive and well even in this oral and visual age.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that the thinking process adapts to accommodate the new styles of receiving and delivering information makes me wonder how it has adapted and changed in the past. Perhaps as more people began reading, cognition development took a turn. It has been strange for me to think of the book or pencil as technology, but they were at one time the cutting edge. That whole concept is making me rethink my relationship with current technologies.