"Every technological revolution has its benefits--and its casualties. The invention of writing was itself a technological revolution. In his dialogue Phaedrus, Plato tells a story about the old god Theuth, the inventor of many arts, including arithmetic and geometry. But his greatest discovery, said Plato, "was the use of letters." He came one day to Thamus, the Egyptian god-king, who dwelt in Thebes. Theuth presented his great invention, writing, to the king. "This," said Theuth," will make the Egyptians wiser. It will increase their memory and improve their wit." But the Egyptian king was not impressed.
"Because these letters are like your own offspring," he said, "you are blind to their faults. This discovery of yours will only create forgetfulness in the learner's soul because he will no longer need to use his memory. He will trust to the written characters instead of his memory, and will not remember them himself. These letters of yours may help in reminiscence, but they are not an aid to memory. Your hearers will become, not disciples of the truth, but of a semblance of truth only. They will be hearers of many things, but they will learn nothing."
This seems a harsh judgment to us today, and yet there is truth in it. Writing brought about many improvements, but it would be false to think that, in moving away from an oral culture where memorization was the primary method of learning, something was not lost." --Prof. Martin Cothran, from "The Decline and Fall of the Book:
Why the Demise of the Encyclopedia Britannica means the End of Western Civilization" (found here)
"Because these letters are like your own offspring," he said, "you are blind to their faults. This discovery of yours will only create forgetfulness in the learner's soul because he will no longer need to use his memory. He will trust to the written characters instead of his memory, and will not remember them himself. These letters of yours may help in reminiscence, but they are not an aid to memory. Your hearers will become, not disciples of the truth, but of a semblance of truth only. They will be hearers of many things, but they will learn nothing."
This seems a harsh judgment to us today, and yet there is truth in it. Writing brought about many improvements, but it would be false to think that, in moving away from an oral culture where memorization was the primary method of learning, something was not lost." --Prof. Martin Cothran, from "The Decline and Fall of the Book:
Why the Demise of the Encyclopedia Britannica means the End of Western Civilization" (found here)
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I don't agree with all this professor says in this essay; though he begins by bemoaning the loss of his childhood inspiration and pastime, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cothran then continues to then bash electronic literature, as the Encyclopaedia Britannica has opted to be updated in digital form, though it will not be reprinted past its 2010 publication.
Anyways, it's so true: technology makes us dumber. In primary school mathematics classes, students are taught how to figure equations out by hand, with pencil and paper, before being taught the calculator short-cut. Guess which one gets used more? Guess which one gets forgotten quicker?
Before I had a cell phone, I could have multiple phone numbers memorized at a time. Nowadays, I just use my cell phone's phonebook to call someone. The numbers that form their unique cell phone number have lost their value; instead, Joel Fong is Joel Fong and Christopher Locke is Christopher Locke.
Before ancient civilizations valued written texts' accuracy over the veracity of spoken word (which happened sometime around the first century A.D.), much of history and poetry were simply remembered. You've surely heard of oral tradition, reader. Oral tradition is where a family's history and genealogy and other stories were simply spoken from one generation to the next, and so on and so forth. Much of the Pentateuch was recorded this way before being written down by Moses. The Greek poets, most notably Homer, were able to memorize huge chunks of dialogue, history, and mythology, only to regurgitate it in iambic hexameter for hours on end. What to do if they hit a mindblock? Insert convenient sacrifice scene here, stall for time, and rearrange words and phrases in your head. Got that?
I've pondered the (possibly unethical) experimenting of restricting a child of mine from using a calculator or written word for the first few years, to see if he or she'd be better able to memorize Scripture. :)
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I was asked to sing Hillsong's "Devotion" for an event the men in my on-campus Bible study are putting on for the women. I'm gunnnaa diieeeeee....
Also, I'm having a really hard time staying focused on learning the silly little nuances of the Greek "optative" mood, since it won't be used often in Koine Greek, the Greek dialect of the New Testament. If I won't be using it, why bother?
Oh, wait. I'm a Psychology & Social Behavior major. Right.
I ought to be sleeping! Happy Lord's Day!
Anyways, it's so true: technology makes us dumber. In primary school mathematics classes, students are taught how to figure equations out by hand, with pencil and paper, before being taught the calculator short-cut. Guess which one gets used more? Guess which one gets forgotten quicker?
Before I had a cell phone, I could have multiple phone numbers memorized at a time. Nowadays, I just use my cell phone's phonebook to call someone. The numbers that form their unique cell phone number have lost their value; instead, Joel Fong is Joel Fong and Christopher Locke is Christopher Locke.
Before ancient civilizations valued written texts' accuracy over the veracity of spoken word (which happened sometime around the first century A.D.), much of history and poetry were simply remembered. You've surely heard of oral tradition, reader. Oral tradition is where a family's history and genealogy and other stories were simply spoken from one generation to the next, and so on and so forth. Much of the Pentateuch was recorded this way before being written down by Moses. The Greek poets, most notably Homer, were able to memorize huge chunks of dialogue, history, and mythology, only to regurgitate it in iambic hexameter for hours on end. What to do if they hit a mindblock? Insert convenient sacrifice scene here, stall for time, and rearrange words and phrases in your head. Got that?
I've pondered the (possibly unethical) experimenting of restricting a child of mine from using a calculator or written word for the first few years, to see if he or she'd be better able to memorize Scripture. :)
-------
I was asked to sing Hillsong's "Devotion" for an event the men in my on-campus Bible study are putting on for the women. I'm gunnnaa diieeeeee....
Also, I'm having a really hard time staying focused on learning the silly little nuances of the Greek "optative" mood, since it won't be used often in Koine Greek, the Greek dialect of the New Testament. If I won't be using it, why bother?
Oh, wait. I'm a Psychology & Social Behavior major. Right.
I ought to be sleeping! Happy Lord's Day!
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