Inspiration
How Long Will Your Words Last?
Writing with the future in mind
Will the words you write today live beyond you? If you write, and who doesn’t today, you may sometimes wonder about that question. Will your words make an impact? Will they create a meaningful impression on someone in the future? Let’s explore this subject and see what we can learn.
The history of words
The printed word is a recent phenomenon and has only become more available in the last 200 years. In the early 1800s, only the wealthy could afford a book.
For most of human history, words were passed from one person to another through oral tradition. Imagine transferring your knowledge and history by the spoken word, often told as stories and passed from generation to generation for thousands of years.
While writing is said to have existed for about 5,500 years, very, very few could read and write. According to the World Economic Forum, in 1820, about 200 years ago, the world literacy rate was 12%. That means only about one in ten people could read and write!
As recently as 1900, the world literacy rate was 21%, meaning only two out of ten people could read! It was not until 1950 that about half of the world’s population could read and write. Today, the…
