A Happy Medium

My views on the Internet are undeniably cynical. Part of me can't help but feel that the Internet and digital media are being glorified as an academic discipline while simultaneously stunting our intellectual growth. But the more I read, the more I realize that I am not the only person to resent change in the intellectual landscape. 

Plato was a major opponent of the written word. In her article "Blogs, Communities, and Networks," Rettberg notes that Plato "argued that writing creates a distance between author and reader that does not exist in a conversation, because you can read a text when the author is absent. That distance, Plato argued, made texts unresponsive. If you ask a text a question, it will 'preserve a solemn silence'." 

In my mind, the written word has always been the ultimate in rhetoric and communication. It is powerful and effective, able to move and challenge the audience without being subject to imperfect oratory, and able to stand the test of time. However, it hasn’t always been the premiere mode of communication. There was a time when oratory was the dominant mode of communication, and great scholars like Plato were skeptical of the effects of literacy.

Plato’s greatest critique of written word was that it was unresponsive. If you didn’t understand what the author intended by a word or a statement, the text is unable to defend itself. Plato was a firm believer in discourse—a dialogue where ideas are discussed and questions can be posed and answered. The written word is simply disseminated, but the word itself is unable to enter a dialogue.

A blog is, in a sense, a happy medium between dissemination and dialogue—a text that can respond. Walter Ong, a prominent scholar of electronic media, characterized our cultural transition from print to digital media as “a secondary orality, a return in someways to a cultural more like that of the ancient Greeks than of the post-Gutenberg society.” The permanency and salience of the written word collide with the discourse and thoughtfulness of orality in the blogosphere. Bloggers link to other bloggers. Readers survey the works and are able to respond in the comments section. The authorship can then address the questions being posed by the audience.

In her article “From Bards to Blogs,” Rettberg comments that “with every media shift there have been skeptical voices lamenting the loss of whatever characteristics the previously dominant medium was perceived as promoting.” There has always been, and will always be, some form of hesitation towards major changes in the way society and scholarship function. While I do believe that some level of skepticism towards the internet healthy, it was reassuring to hear that even literacy, which has undeniably benefited the history of the human race, was met with some uncertainty.