it's B! Cavello šŸ
Recently encountering a bunch of content referencing a literacy vs orality culture, seeming to imply that literacy culture is specifically about WRITING rather than recording. This seems super weird to me. (And has a sort of ableist ā€œaudio doesnā€™t count as readingā€ vibe about it.) Whatā€™s especially odd to me is Iā€™m seeing this expressed by a buncha folks who seem very thoughtful usuallyā€¦ like am I missing something obvious here? It just feels so odd to me. Like people are just parroting a memeā€¦
Apr 5 at 3:08amWeb
Show threadit's B! Cavello šŸ1d ago
Like a sentiment people will express is something to the effect of ā€œnow that weā€™re watching videos and listening to podcasts, weā€™re returning to an orality cultureā€ or, in the best cases, at least proposing that it is a post-literacy phenomenon (like not returning, per se, but moving into something new).
While I am inclined to embrace the possibility of ā€œsomething newā€ it just feels like a tremendously superficial understanding of what literacy got us. I really donā€™t think it was about writing!
Show threadit's B! Cavello šŸ1d ago
Am I missing something obvious here? #linguist fedi, steer me right
As I understand it: orality vs literacy is about our ability to record concepts and transmit them, with relatively little proximity/relation between the person communicating and the person receiving the information. Like the golden records on Voyager and the audio we sent from Earthā€¦ thatā€™s literacy culture! Right?? Just because itā€™s audio doesnā€™t change that!
Show threadSpencer1d ago
@b_cavello Not a linguist, just a layperson, but your interpretation jives with mine. Tyson Yunkaporta talks about that transition in Sand Talk and discusses how it causes information to be abstracted as separate from the context it was produced inā€”the speaker, the environment, the web of relationships, etc. I can't see why this would be any less true for podcasts or radio recordings than the written word.
Show threadit's B! Cavello šŸ1d ago
@spencer Thanks for sharing your perspective. At the least, it makes me feel less alone in being like ????
Show threadJ Miller18h ago

@b_cavello

The topic of post-literacy fascinates me but also kind of terrifies me. I think it's worth engaging seriously w/ how consuming content via audio or especially video is different from reading written text.

Both audio and video come as streams, making any given moment less connected to the previous content. Reading is often iterative, going back and re-building from previous material if you get lost or distracted. Also, there is the "seeing is believing" aspect to video. 1/2

Show threadJ Miller18h ago

@b_cavello

I think I agree with you to the extent that literacy is not just about reading and writing. But I do think it's worth examining what exactly reading and writing do for us, and the potentially different things listening and watching do for us. 2/2

Show threadJ Miller18h ago

@b_cavello

You might find the work of @Endangeredalphabets interesting here. See also https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/author/timbrookes/

I'm oversimplifying, but he observed that linguistics has been leaning very heavily into spoken language, with written language in more of a supporting role, and has in various ways explored the specific role of writing.

random third post /

Tim Brookes ā€“ Endangered Alphabets