The Influence of Information and Communication Technologies on Societies and their Cultures: A Historical Perspective

The Written Word

In Plato’s Phaedrus (Jowett, 2008), the Greek philosopher Socrates questioned the use of writing: “He would be a very simple person…who should leave in writing or receive in writing any art under the idea that the written word would be intelligible or certain; or who deemed that writing was at all better than knowledge and recollection of the same matters” (p. 70). Thus in the time of Socrates, the 5th century B.C.E., the technology being questioned was what certainly most of us now take for granted as a basic – even elemental – form of communication: handwriting.

The impact of the written word as a form of communication is, of course, indisputable. Whether transmitted via inscribed rock, tree bark, or papyrus, written communication of human thoughts and deeds has been a technological development that has influenced countless societies, cultures, and civilizations. To even attempt to measure the impact of this now-common form of communication on the subsequent history of the world is in itself a daunting if not futile endeavor. Yet, incredible as it may seem, at one time the development of an alphabet and writing were considered of questionable value by Socrates and many of his contemporaries who preferred that their philosophies and discourse be distributed in oration.

The effect on society and their surrounding cultures was immutable: what was once considered to be in the exclusive domain of anointed sages and their charges was now available to even among the most common – allowing that one had to learn to read, as well. This was a skill that was long only selectively shared, so as to maintain a certain distance regarding learned men versus their illiterate counterparts. But eventually even common folk were encouraged to read; mostly by those who sought to disseminate the word of God – or local authority – as they knew it.