This week’s blog post is focused mainly on Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy Writing restructures consciousness.  In this passage Ong states that “Fourthly, in keeping with the agonistic mentality of oral cultures, Plato’s Socrates also holds it against writing that the written word cannot defend itself as the natural spoken word can…” This quote caught my attention because it highlights how something that is written could easily be misinterpreted. Something such as a news article or a tweet could be taken the wrong way and it could not defend itself because it isn’t anything but words on a page or a screen. It would be easier to clarify your point of view through “the natural spoken word” because it would be easier to communicate with. To use a real world example, arguing with someone via text message is way more harder than arguing with someone through phone calls or face to face. Your points don’t come off as strong and its easier to misinterpret each others point. I feel like the quote above still applies to society today, despite the advancements in technology.

For this weeks reading I looked at the article ORALITY AND LITERACY by Walter Ong. The article reflects on the idea that the technology of books and any written documentation is making humanity more “stupid”. The author sourced Plato in which he claims “writing destroys memory. Those who use writing will become forgetful, relying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources”. To an extent I do I agree with Plato’s ideas. Hes saying that instead of us actual trying to use brain power to memorize and think of ideas and facts, we instead rely on what is already written down. Once those written documents are burned they are gone for ever unless someone can remember them. It is similar to calculators, some people believe they will cause society to worsen an individuals math skills.
But my argument is written statements hold information longer and once its written it can’t be changed unlike oral history. You can tell the same story multiple times but it may be subject to change and false info may be spread. Also it is more easier to learn more knowledge and makes it widespread to anyone that can pick the book and read.

For this week’s blog post I decided to respond to Walter Ong ‘s “Orality and Literacy”. I found this reading to be very intriguing because Ong stresses the importance of writing in correlation with our minds. Ong states that “writing is a technology that restructures thought” the main thing he tries to show us is writing is a technology and it changes the way we think. For example, reading on the internet is different than reading on a printed page online reading were scanning looking for the main points, and for a printed page were taking our time reading and annotating. I think we are impatient when it comes to finding information online we are quick and want the answers now. Ong says that writing changes us without awareness and changes human consciousness. He talks about orality. Orality makes the community, because speech always makes us interact to more than one person. For example, in class when we share our stories it makes you learn other people experiences and it gives you the insight into orality and literacy understanding. Overall, I found Ong article to be very helpful in understanding oral cultures and the importance of stressing your thinking ability.

For this weeks post I am reflecting on Walter Ong “ORALITY AND LITERACY Writing restructures consciousness”. This reading especially stood out to me. “Secondly, Plato’s Socrates urges, writing destroys memory. Those who use writing will become forgetful, relying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources. Writing weakens the mind. Today, parents and others fear that pocket calculators provide an external resomce for what ought to be the internal resource of memorized multiplication tables.” All my life my parents have always taught me different strategies on studying. They were not allowed to go to school but they were fascinated with education. Although they were only allowed to go up to 8th grade, they are such intelligent people. My parents grew up extremely poor but my grandparents made sure my parents studied. They had no paper, so they studied on napkins. They memorized there history, there math and writing skills on napkins at home. My parents have always told my sisters and I the more you write the better you’ll understand what your studying. I was always a math struggler but when I was little my mom use to sit with me and she would teach me how to do math problems over and over again by writing them down. If you write things down using your own words it’ll stick better in your memory. Writing, in my own experience has been the best strategy to help me with school, work and just life in general. I disagree with Platos statement because writing is very crucial in everyday life, it is the key in life. It may not be everyones favorite thing to do, but it is something that you hold onto for the future. The human brain cannot remember everything. My parents grew up without calculators and they tried to teach my sisters and I how to do math without calculators as well. They can do math in there brain as fast as a calculator.