Ong Freewrite

By this statement, Ong means that human perception of oneself and paths of thinking were changed by the invention of writing. Also, that human thought about language was allowed to flourish. When language is written down, it can be taken apart and looked at, it can be dissected into its constituents’ meaning, and it can be held constant or developed. For example, being aware of the patterns of communication by being allowed to preserve them and turn them into something physical has a profound impact on their meaning, but, because writing allows communication not between two people but between a person and the writing, written language also creates a whole other world through communication with oneself and an inanimate object. The other obvious invention that has changed human consciousness is the internet. However, it can be said that the internet comes out of writing because a lot of information on the internet is in written format. However, the availability of communication in so many different forms (written, visual, now oral-aural) in real time offers humans the ability to communicate in any form with anyone or anything anywhere. Writing to send information to someone far away does not need to take place if one can turn on a webcam and put on a speaker headset and tell the person face to face. In a way, the internet is lessening the importance of writing because space and time are no longer the great boundaries that can only be overcome by written language. Perhaps at some point soon, there will actually be no need for writing at all.