The Development of Writing

Kaitlyn L
Kaitlyn L
Sep 7, 2018 · 7 min read

And how it influenced the foundation of postmodern life

One of the most important aspects of studying the field of communication is understanding media’s evolution through time. The ways that the human race communicates has changed drastically overtime. This evolution has shaped culture, built complex societies, and changed the course of history. Media Evolution and Cultural Change by Joshua Meyrowitz dives into the world of medium theory and how culture and evolution have influenced the human race’s ability to communicate. The resulting evolution of communication has created the vast world of complex societies we know today.

The first stage of evolution in the medium theory looks at Traditional Oral Cultures. These groups of people did not have any form of writing. They learned experientially, passing down knowledge from the elders to the young in a tribe.

These cultures had a strong sense of community and their cultures had no concept of modern individualism. One of the most unique features of these cultures it their ability to interpret words as time bound events. Elders played a key role in these communities because they were living records of the past.

The next stage in the medium theory is the Medieval Scribal Phase. Writing and books created “complex societies” and ideas were recorded which freed people from depending on memory. Writing was originally used only to record spoken words; however, overtime writing broke the bond between members in oral tribes.

“By allowing easy access to social information apart from face-to-face interaction, printing encourages retreat from the surrounding oral community and from extended kinship ties and greater isolation of the nuclear family,” (Meyrowitz, p. 58)

In other words, writing and memory began to weaken the bond between elders and young of a tribe because the elders were no longer the record keepers for information. In many ways, the bond between elders was replaced by writing. While societies were still communal, those who were literate developed a sense of individualism. The era of writing allowed people who lived close together the freedom of different experiences, while still allowing those who lived far apart the ability to stay connected.

Apart from a good laugh, this example picture of “early writing” gives rise to the connection between early writing and postmodern writing. While a literate person during the Medieval Scribal Phase was not writing down jokes on his expensive paper, he would be writing information that was replicated and spread to many people. Although these were mostly religious texts, this recording and spreading of information is very similar to the spread of texts during the Modernist and Postmodern Eras.

Modern era texts were quickly replicated and spread virally thanks to technology such as the printing press (and later the Internet). While writing began during the scribal phase, the invention of printing during the Modernist Era completely revolutionized the amount of information that could be spread… much like information goes viral today.

Knowledge is Power

With the rise of the Modernist Era came the age of enlightenment and mass communication mediums such as early newspapers and later mediums including radio and television. Mass communication created modernity while higher education emphasized specialized knowledge. This era brought scientific explanation and a strong emergence of individualism for everyday people. In many ways, knowledge, literacy, and education became power. Modern Print Culture and the enlightenment created the era of expert knowledge and reorganized communication structures while creating new patterns in societies.

Finally, the Postmodern Era arose with the creation of the personal computer and the Internet. With the creation of a global village, people had the ability to connect and share. It could be argued that Post-Modern Global Electronic Culture has completely rewired the enlightenment’s focus on expert knowledge.

This period has blurred the lines of expert knowledge and entitled every person with their own opinion. Without the legitimate publications of text, the Internet makes it difficult to know what information is true and what is false. The Postmodern Era has given rise to a society of “experts” who have no actual education on the topics they discuss. This is a complete flip from the Modernist Era, when printing made expert knowledge so important.

The Connection Between the Stages of Medium Theory

One of the most interesting attributes to the medium theory is looking at how later stages in evolution relate to the earlier stages of oral communication. For example, in oral tribes, there was no separation between the idea of “work and leisure”. What is now considered to be modern day “work” was just the everyday life of oral civilizations. There was no variation between work and leisure because every day meant working in order to survive. This idea comes from the age of traditional oral cultures; however, we see this idea pop up again during the Post-Modern Global Electronic Era as discussed by Meyrowitz.

The major difference between this modern idea and the historical example is that individuals are no longer tied to “natural rhythms of the earth”, but instead to the alerts and notifications of their constantly present social life. Between computers and smartphones, people are forever connected to one another, thriving off of notification beeps and alert dings. People often judge their worth through likes and comments.

The Age of Experience

According to Meyrowitz, the era of writing and books allowed people who lived close together to gain different experiences while making those who lived apart feel like they were still connected. In other words, writing connected people over distance.

In many ways, today’s social media has replaced early society’s use of books in its ability to connect people over long distances. With new technologies, people are able to stay connected to one another regardless of the distance between them. While writing influences the connectivity of people, it also influenced the way people learned and understood facts.

The Influence of Printing

Prior to the age of widespread literacy, people learned facts by direct personal experience. The young looked up to the old because they were living records of information. By the mid 15th century, the invention of printing changed the course of media history. As standardized information was spread through Europe, printing became a mass medium. Information such as maps and books were considered commodities, and people became their own experts through the invention of manuals.

Facts went from being definitive through personal experience, to a more fluid concept meant to be questioned and reviewed. For the first time in history, knowledge could be checked on a large scale, and more scholarly works could be created because there was no need to remember information that was stored in libraries and indexed. This widespread printing led to a focus on intellect and science known as the enlightenment. People could share ideas and knowledge through printing, which could then be reviewed by other scholars all over Europe. This enlightened thinking helped build complex societies.

“Mercantilism, logic, metaphysics, poly & later monotheistic religions, early forms of scientific methods, political doctrines, and philosophy. Writing and books enables new ideas to be built upon previous knowledge!” (Soha, p. 7)

Printing became one of the most important inventions in the history of communication’s evolution. Mass communication technologies, like the printing press, gave rise to age of modernity. It standardized education and led to the creation of other mass mediums such as newspaper and later radio as well.

While the evolution of medium theory is long and complex, it gave society reason to value knowledge. These stages of speaking and writing built the foundation for communication that society stands on today. Writing allowed for deeper thought and opinions to form; however, nowadays people believe they are entitled to an opinion regardless of how educated it is or not. As the great Joshua Meyrowitz said:

“Along with the enhanced focus on feeling and emotion and other criteria of evaluation that require no special training information implosion leads to the blurring of disciplinary boundaries, an appreciation for generalism, and the growing sense that everyone has the right to his or her opinion (whether “informed” or not!),” (meyrowitz, p. 60).

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