Writing as Media & Social Media

Today’s Keywords/Concepts

• Writing

• Social media

• Tablet

• Scroll

• Book

• Space between words

What is Social Media?• “Forms of electronic communication (e.g.,

websites used for social networking) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (e.g., videos)”

• social media is linked to user-generated content; sharing, co-creating, discussing and modifying are practices associated with the social media.

Why is Social Media Popular?

• Humans are social animals• Humans love to gossip and use gossip to

establish their social status (“Hey, did you hear that I just signed with XXX and so did [fill in currently popular singer here]...”)

• Humans have the means (media technologies) to support their social networks

• And...

Social networking is just an extension of picking bugs out of our friends’ fur...

• See p. 12 to 13 of the Standage reading

• Social networking is a bit like picking bugs out of your friends’ fur/hair. In short, it’s a way to form strong social bonds. But since we’re no longer covered in lice, or at least we hope we’re not, lice picking has been replaced with sharing gossip: “Gossip is grooming at a distance” but to groom at a distance, you need some form of media.

Development of Writing

• Pictograms – Point to something in the world (e.g., cave drawings)

• Ideograms – Symbols that represent something in the world (e.g., stick figure that looks like a “man” but points to the men’s bathroom)

• Hieroglyphs – Both point to things in the world and stand for sounds

The Invention of Writing

• Writing, as we know it, emerges with the phonetic alphabet; for the first time, what’s represented are sounds not things; this develops around 500 BCE

• At first, Greek culture remained skeptical of writing (why?)

• See Socrates’ critique of writing expressed by Plato in Phaedrus

Socrates on Writing

• “Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings...

....they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to protect or help itself.”

Standage, Writing on the Wall

• On what basis does Standage suggests that today’s social media may share more in common with media circa 500 BCE than, let’s say, media from the early to mid 20th century?

• Used abbreviations and acronyms (e.g.,

SPD – “Send many greetings”)

• The line between letter writing and speech was blurry (most letters were transcribed from speech)

• Written messages were typically erased (somewhat ephemeral)

• Like us, people wrote on tablets

• Exchanging letters impacted people’s social status; helped them gain social status (friends)

• Personal and public correspondence was blurred (letters addressed to an individual were often also meant read aloud/shared)

• In Ancient Greece, political news as well as gossip (e.g., who was getting divorced) were popular letter topics

• For some entrepreneurs, the recording and circulation of information was a source of income

• Aphorisms were very popular (concise expressions, like “Know thyself,” “Divide and conquer” etc.)

What did writing look like in Ancient Greece?

2200 BCE

Hornbook, the 15th century’s tablet

The slate, the 19th century’s tablet

PC tablet, year 2000 tablet

460 BCE

What’s missing?

MODERNREADINGISASILENTSOLITARYANDRAPIDACTIVITYANCIENTREADINGWASUSUALLYORALEITHERALOUDINGROUPSORINDIVIDUALLYINAMUFFLEDVOICEREADINGLIKEANYHUMANACTIVITYHASAHISTORYITCANNOTBEASSUMEDTHATTHECOGNITIVEPROCESSESTHATENABLETODAYSREADERTODECIPHERTHEWRITTENPAGEHAVEBEENTHESAMETHROUGHOUTTHERECORDEDPASTCONTEMPORARYEVIDENCEFORTHISASSERTATIONCANBEDRAWNFROMDIVERSECULTURESTHROUGHOUTTHEWORLDWHWHERELITERATEMENANDWOMENUSEDIFFERENTCOGNTIVEPROCESSESTOREADDIFFERENTFORMSOFHANDWRITTENANDPRINTEDTEXT

MODERN READING IS A SILENT SOLITARY AND RAPID ACTIVITY ANCIENT READING WAS USUALLY ORAL EITHER ALOUD IN GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALLY IN A MUFFLED VOICE READING LIKE ANY HUMAN ACTIVITY HAS A HISTORY IT CANNOT BE ASSUMED THAT THE COGNITIVE PROCESSES THAT ENABLE TODAYS READER TO DECIPHER THE WRITTEN PAGE HAVE BEEN THE SAME THROUGHOUT THE RECORDED PAST CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE FOR THIS ASSERTATION CAN BE DRAWN FROM DIVERSE CULTURES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WHERE LITERATE MEN AND WOMEN USE DIFFERENT COGNTIVE PROCESSES TO READ DIFFERENT FORMS OF HAND WRITTEN AND PRINTEDTEXT

MODERN READING IS A SILENT, SOLITARY, AND RAPID ACTIVITY. ANCIENT READING WAS USUALLY ORAL, EITHER ALOUD, IN GROUPS, OR INDIVIDUALLY IN A MUFFLED VOICE. READING ,LIKE ANY HUMAN ACTIVITY, HAS A HISTORY. IT CANNOT BE ASSUMED THAT THE COGNITIVE PROCESSES THAT ENABLE TODAY’S READER TO DECIPHER THE WRITTEN PAGE HAVE BEEN THE SAME THROUGHOUT THE RECORDED PAST. CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE FOR THIS ASSERTATION CAN BE DRAWN FROM DIVERSE CULTURES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WHERE LITERATE MEN AND WOMEN USE DIFFERENT COGNTIVE PROCESSES TO READ DIFFERENT FORMS OF HAND WRITTEN AND PRINTEDTEXT.

Modern reading is a silent, solitary, and rapid activity. Ancient reading was usually oral, either aloud, in groups, or individually in a muffled voice. Reading, like any human activity, has a history. It cannot be assumed that the cognitive processes that enable today’s reader to decipher the written page have been the same throughout the recorded past. Contemporary evidence for this assertion can be drawn from diverse cultures throughout the world where literate men and women use different cognitive processes to read different forms of hand written and printed text.

- Paul Saenger, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading (p.1)

Effects of Silent Reading

• Entrenched literacy

• Cognitive effects

• Democratizing effects

• Individuality became more valued

• Eventually authorship developed

• Privacy became more important (reading was no longer oral and public)

• Changed architecture

The Medieval Book

14th Century

From Medieval Page to Screen

• Colour• Illumination/illustration• Illuminated letters• Diverse fonts• Frames• Columns• Comprised of fragments• No paragraph indentation• No page numbers

Why does any of this matter?• The invention of writing not only changed how we

communicate, it changed who we are, how we thought, how we understood the world etc.

• New media always recycle old media (writing cultures in Ancient Greece were still very influenced by oral cultures; forms, like the tablet and scroll, have been carried forward over time; similarly, computer icons point back to print culture)

• Social media isn’t new; it’s “grooming at a distance” and a fundament part of media technologies dating back to Antiquity

• Even the smallest innovations (space between words, grammatical marks etc.) can have a significant impact (e.g., on our social order or architecture)