Orality and Literacy - by Walter J. Ong

In this book Ong studies the big change of our communication method from speaking to reading. In other words, before there was no letter people only used ‘the oral expressions’ and after letters were invented people have mainly used ‘the written words.’ Because of this change, the ability to communicate has changed from orality to literacy.

There are two major differences between oral expressions and written words: interactivity and residue. In oral culture, all verbal communication must be addressed by direct words of mouth. So when people communicate with others, there are always interpersonal relations which are kept until the end of conversation. In other words, verbal communication means real ‘interactivity’: we can expect direct response from our conversation partner. In literate culture, however, reading books have a different situation. Between written words and readers, there is no interactivity: questions are available but we can not get any answers.

In addition, Ong says “written words are residue. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit.” We can store the oral expressions only in our minds. If we forget that expressions, there will be nothing. But written words always exist in the books until these books disappear.

These differences brought about the changes for storing and sharing information. We do not need to memorize information, as in the oral tradition; instead we can write it down and keep it without memory. Keeping information without efforts to memorize is more convenient than memorizing information, but it decreases our ability to memorize.
In oral culture, exchanging and sharing information happen through people, but in literate culture, it happens through people as well or another media such as books, newspapers, etc. These changes influence our consciousness and reconstruct the way of the human reasoning.

I agree with the author because it is true that media shapes the way we conceive the world. This is why I believe that we should pay attention to the change of the media. The main communication media that we usually use can change our thinking constructions. Nowadays we experience the revolution of media such as Internet, cell phones, etc. The media is changing rapidly: there are not only letters but also visual pictures and not only the interactivity between people and other people, but also between people and machines. Because of this, we have to think about media carefully and we should choose the main media wisely. Also, we should be aware of how new media is going to influence our lives or consciousness deeply in order to control it.