Wordblog

I have a fantasy that human communications had developed differently — the oral tradition had advanced early with telephones, radio and then video so strongly that no one had seen the need to invent writing.

Then the internet was created with all voice commands. It worked pretty well with voice messages and comments allowing a high degree of interactivity.

Then some nerds came up with a set of characters which they claimed could appear on a a screen and represent sounds visually. They said that not only did it at least double the speed of human communication but it also improved comprehension because of the instant replay facility.

At first they were derided. Who would bother to learn this crazy technology. And their second invention, a keyboard to create text, was even madder.

But a group of advocates gathered around them promoting writing as the most important technology in this history of mankind. The adding of a text facility to phones introduced writing to a whole generation of school kids. Their teachers tutted about the way oral communication was being damaged.

But driven by children and nerds it became the fastest growing technology in history. Internet sites at which youngsters communicated by text were a phenomenon. Parents, worried about what their children were saying, learned to write.

Watching this, news sites began adding text to their sites alongside video and podcasts….

Just a fantasy. But sometimes we seem to be in danger of forgetting the wonder of writing.