The importance of the oral and scribal phases of communication
Joshua Meyrowitz breaks down four key phases of life that lead us to where we are today. The tribal oral cultures relied on storytelling, through the use of dance, poems and singing, in order to keep memories alive. The tribal oral culture only communicated orally, and therefore not many people knew how to read or write. The scribal phase was a transitional time period, as those who could write began to spate themselves from those who couldn’t. This is because these people knew how to not only write, but read as well. Different cultures were able to share the way they lived, as explain by Meyrowitz when he says, “As writing spreads, people who live in the same places began to know and experience different things, while those who read the same material began to feel connected to each other regardless of their location.” With the spread of the printing press, the Modern Era would begin to take shape. With the ability to mass produce content the way people communicated would drastically change. The rise of mass produced content, meant access to reading and writing materials was more available to all. With that, the postmodern era would rise as the use of electronics made the widespread use of all communications more and more common. The TV, radio and other forms of electronic communication over took other methods and became the go to choice for most users.

Although it may seem like it all happened at once, the transitions between these phases is quite complex. Especially between the tribal oral culture and the scribal phase of life. Both of these phases are quite Important to the development of the time period we live in today. The transition between these two phases is completely important and can be broken down from a complex outlook. Starting by looking at what the tribal oral cultures were like, we can see the major differences in the way they would communicate as compared to any other culture. Meyrowitz outlines the way they communicated when he says “In oral societies, words are not objects to be viewed or held, but some time-bound events, much like thunder or a scream.” What this means is that in this time, words are everywhere, and in order to operate in the tribe, one must use words to communicate.
What is most important to understand is the transition from an oral phase to a scribal phase. We can look at this time period both through Meyrowitz’s readings, as well as the movie “Matter of Fact.” With more people beginning to write, the oral phase begins to fizzle out. So much in fact that those who had the ability to write began to segregate from those who couldn’t, which is highlighted by Meyrowitz when he says “since writing is not a ‘natural’ human ability, writing systems segregate those who can read and write from those who cannot.” Those who had a higher level of reading and writing had higher level of “power” so to speak. As writing becomes more and more common, the oral phase begins to fizzle out. Writing offered a much easier way to communicate and store memories, Meyrowitz again focuses on this idea when he mentions this, “in the long run, however, phonetic writing in particular tends to break down the tribal cohesion of oral societies because it offers a relatively simple way to preserve prose and construct extended strings of connected abstract thought that would be almost impossible for oral peoples to develop, memorize or transmit to others.
Things during this transition weren’t so simple however, as actually learning how to write and read wasn’t so easy. Most people couldn’t read without speaking the words to themselves out loud. Thus, the transition to a fully scribal time period wasn’t necessarily ready yet. But as time continued to go onm the transition was complete, putting us much closer to the society we live in today. While still being thousands of years away at the same time. The transition from an oral to a scribal time is very important to the history of technology and communications. Without this time period, and the development of writing, it is possible to believe that we, as people, would not be the developed and skilled communicators we are today.