I’ve been reading McLuhan a lot lately trying to figure out what effects media shifts have on culture. As parts of the modern world walk away from picturesque media, turning to this new dynamic variant of the written word (my theory, not his), we can look back to previous media shifts for potential effects, transition signs, and so on.
McLuhan recalls Plato on the transition from the spoken word to the written one…
If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.
Plato isn’t a predictor here, he is the voice of conservatism. Plato could likely have recited line and verse multiple complex narratives known throughout his culture, of course he couldn’t concede to modern man standing next to a book on a shelf as having his understanding of that which he can recite. But what of modern cyber-enhanced man with his printed books and television, or more importantly, his transmission control protocol and user datagram protocol over internet protocol?
I don’t know—that’s why I’m reading McLuhan, and Shirky, and Robb, Vinge and others.
