Life without the written word? Wait? What Now?

So it may be slightly ironic to discuss life without writing in a written blog. But I began to think about this with some of the readings this week and began to think about how written words play such a big role in everyday life.

I remember recently having someone ask me if I remembered life without the internet. I actually do, but not too well. I remember watching cartoons and riding my bike outside a lot. But I cannot say the same for the written word. The written word is way more evolved than the internet having been around for so long.

I began to think of the simple things I do all day that don't involve the written word, and I haven't found many. Cooking is one of the few things I do that don't involve any writing, and that assuming I'm not reading the directions (and if you've had my cooking, you'd agree that I never read directions very well).

Including my job as a website content writer, most of my day involves written words. From reading my alarm clock to know whether or not I need to get out of bed to reading street signs when I drive, almost every part of our day involves reading words.

And then I began to consider how written words affect the way I think sometimes. When I began to think about this topic, I immediately began to try to plan how I would write in my weekly blog.

I also found many things about daily life that I would feel the need to tell a friend through text or update my Facebook status to let my friends in on a joke or something. A lot of my thoughts can be immediately translated into the written word and preserved through some type of writing.

But I also wonder how much of my daily thought process is translated into words. Because my work revolves around writing, I am guessing that it does effect my thought process more than a lot of other people.

I guess that is why it is difficult for me quickly accept the idea that “a non literate culture is not necessarily a primitive one” (Preliteracy of Greeks Handout 186). So much of the written word is apart of our culture and not including reading literature for fun or for school.

This brings me back to the survey we deconstructed a few weeks. The survey took the idea that people don't read for fun is making our society illiterate. I find that the survey even more incorrect after writing my blog and considering how important the written word is not including my school and work day.

Maybe somebody should write to Dana Gioia and send him the Preliteracy of Greek Article and ask him to think if our society is really illiterate after all.