"Well I HEARD..." a Study on Secondary Orality

“Secondary Orality”

The second coming of an oral culture.

The predecessor to the first oral cultures.

The residue of the human’s innate tendency to be a part of an oral culture.

When Ong writes,

“This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, it’s fostering of a communal sense, it’s concentration on the present moment, even its use of formulas.”(Ong 55)

I immediately think of Twitter.

Participatory mystique- the reply button on twitter, the retweet button even. The ability to type out “hello” and know someone somewhere will reply “hello” back instantaneously as if they heard you yell the greeting from across the street.

Communal Sense- your followers and the people you follow on twitter become your community. As soon as you hit the follow button you are literally following that person everywhere, to the store, to the mall, to the free clinic. You are now privy to every detail that they chose to tell you about.

Concentration on the Present- trending topics. These change by the hour, minute, second. In the time it takes to type out a trending topic it is already accounted for and noted. The same as if you were to speak aloud, and some had heard it. This past summer, I learned first about every big scandal or disaster through twitter’s #trending topics. It’s a real time ticker that lists the things that people are talking/tweeting about right at that very second.

Formula-no tweet shall exceed 140 characters. Whatever you have to tweet you have to make it quick and memorable or else no one will read it. Tweets appear on your timeline within seconds of being typed. If you follow 200 people, you’re reading at least 200 tweets a day, if the tweet doesn't capture your attention, more than likely it gets overlooked. Just like in the primary oral culture, where if a story was too long or unmemorable it was forgotten.

These are only some of the qualities of an oral culture that literate society has found to be preferable. The main other would probably be Ong’s theory that man is the navel of the universe.

“The centering action of sound (the field of sound is not spread out before me but all around me) affects man’s sense of the cosmos. For oral culture, the cosmos is an ongoing event with man at the center.”(Ong 54)

I take this to mean the act of hearing is extremely personal. When you hear a sound, it literally feels like its entering you. A rousing sermon, music, crying, these sounds pull emotion out of man, unlike writing which can only come slightly close. If you can feel sound all around you, it can sometimes feel as if you are engulfed in sound and as if that sound was solely made for you. Similar to the way monotheistic religions clung to Aristotle’s belief that animal life only existed for man’s sake, this hearing of sound/ man is the navel of the world theory reminds me of something else.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Literate culture loves to belief the world was made just for us. The audacity to think that sound stops being producing because no person is around to hear it brings me back to the oral cultures belief that “the cosmos is an ongoing event with man at the center”. Apparently, oral culture was only slightly less self centered than literate culture is.

Ong,Walter "Orality, Literacy and Modern Media", Communication in History Sixth Edition 2011

Knowledge Really Becomes Power

“You have invented an elixir not of memory but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant.” Socrates (Robinson 28)

The emergence of tokens and papyrus and paper in ancient civilizations had the same impact that the introduction of the mobile phone had in the 21^st century; mass shifts in power. Suddenly the man with the knowledge wasn’t the only one who knew. Suddenly his words could go farther than his voice and once the knowledge was mobile it was available for others to interpret. And with those mass shifts of power came new rules. Writing became restricted to government, magic, fiscal and religious powers. A new role; the scribe, was created. Scribes didn’t have to pay taxes or dues, and literacy became a means of social prosperity.

With the knowledge that “knowledge is power” many Kings and religious leaders used that to their advantage. Mortal kings are now Gods with the story written in stone, clay or papyrus to prove it. Wars that were lost are recorded as being won. And some of the earliest forms of propaganda begin. The development of writing and the beginning of the access to it can be seen as a blessing and a curse.

The Blessing

• The demand for more scribes and the difficulty of writing creates schools.

• Schools are created

• Education all though it takes a long time to reach masses, creates worldwide progress

• Language can be written down and studied

• Means of communication can be carried to different places, opening up opportunities for trade between industry nations and countries

• “Practically every act of civil life was a matter of law that was recorded and confirmed by the seals of contracting parties and witnesses.” (Innis 20)
  

This made life that much easier to live. If there was a dispute in a community instead of just killing each other, citizens now had ways to record the problem and the ordered solution.

The Curse

• Schools are built through churches and religion controls education

Because religion controls education the views of the scribes and the laws and rules of the world whether they be right are wrong are heavily controlled by religion.

• Writing, like all things can be used for evil and propaganda becomes a means to gaining the trust and belief of the public

• Progress leads to conflict and wars erupt with more intensity
  

Like most things in life, the introduction of these media came with good and bad. But the good definitely outweighs the bad. Without the invention of paper and tokens we would not have the ability to read, write or do basic algebra. These abilities are now largely taken for granted but without it, life as we know it would resort to being only about survival. With writing and the development of our ability to record came an increase in general knowledge. Being able to record our history in turn gave us the ability to learn from our past, predict the future and an overall improvement in quality of life.

Innis, Harold "Media in Ancient Empire" , Communication in History Sixth Edition 2011

Robinson, Andrew "The Orgins of Writing", Communication in History Sixth Edition 2011

The Mobile Network Community: A Response

I’m alone in Commons. People pass me by, some stare, some glance, some don’t notice me. I have a relatively blank expression on my face, and I am aware that in today’s post-columbine society, looking like a loner is cause for speculation. More stares, longer glances, but then,I pull out my blackberry. And suddenly they stop. I’m no longer dining alone at Commons, I’m now enthralled in a hilarious debate with my friends via twitter; or emailing my advisor or even texting my mother. Manuel Castells author of "A Mobile Network Society" describes this unique and relatively new phenomena “Relentless Connectivity”

“With the diffusion of wireless access to the Internet, and to computer networks and information systems everywhere, mobile communication is better defined by it’s capacity for ubiquitous and permanent connectivity rather than by its potential mobility.”

I understood this to mean that mobile communication is no longer about being able to carry your connection to the Internet around with you. It’s the fact that if you do so you’re permanently and instantly connected to various social networks. It’s no longer about how far you can go, but rather, how close can you stay. This ideal is somewhat of a double edged sword. How close is too close?

“One consequences of this development is that traditional norms of courtesy have to be redefined in the new context….a new m-etiquette is struggling to be adopted, specifying when it is proper to isolate oneself from the social environment and when it is not, when it is acceptable to expose one’s personal life and when it is not.”

This has to be one of the biggest moral dilemmas of my generation. How much is too much? Do we really need to know “25 things about you”? Do you feel safe releasing every bit of information about yourself to the World Wide Web for millions of strangers to read? Just how involved are you in your real life, if you spend more time posting statues about what you’re doing than actually doing it? Being relentlessly connected makes the wireless user feel trapped in between two worlds, the real and the virtual.



With the introduction of Skype and Oovoo, this line is almost erased. Now everyone across the nation can get that desperately needed face time. Can’t afford to fly Grandma half way across the country so that she can witness little Jimmy’s first Halloween costume, Skype her. Not at a laptop or desktop? Skype her from your iphone4! While this relentless connectivity can be a beautiful thing, it can also be a horrible one. Now we will have more and more people taking their online lives, one step farther. That Facebook lover, that can’t seem to see you person, can now skype you. Close enough right? Wrong.


As the internet and mobile phones become interchangeable we find ourselves falling deeper and deeper into a social trap. While I agree with Castells belief that wireless connectivity should be available for everyone, because the Internet is a necessity, I fear the inevitable degradation of our culture’s socialization skills if mobile Internet connectivity replaces our ability to communicate the old fashioned way; which was Face to face, or now, on the phone. Pretty soon we’ll have to worry about Internet viruses as much as we do the AIDS virus. Because if a social networking site was to go down, how would anyone get in touch with anyone? How would a new friend be made if you weren’t able to find out their likes and dislikes on twitter first? What’s a “handshake”, can’t I just poke you, like on Facebook?

In conclusion, while I have my doubts about the future of social norms in relation to a mobile network society, I still hope for a counter-culture revolution, that understands the situation we are putting ourselves in.

“It becomes increasingly clear, by looking at patterns of social use, that the true convergence of wireless communication and the Internet will be the critical question in the next phase of the information Age.”

Castells Manuel, "A Mobile Society", Communication in History Sixth Edition 2011