The Writing Trauma vs The Glorification of Writing

Thoughts in relation to Toff's (1997) reading:
What interests me the most is the writing trauma experienced by many ancient Greeks like Socrates. In the literate world we are residing in, we could only fathom the chaos without the ability to write and jot down characters in our everyday lives. It was argued that the birth of writing destroys the communal and naturalistic nature of human beings and yet what is puzzling to me is that the most effective methods of relating and disseminating knowledge is through writings. If it is not for the birth of writing, many historical events, research and philosophies might vanquish, swallowed by the tides of time. In ancient China, where examination is given the utmost importance in order to receive the greatest degree of respect and wealth, writing is celebrated as an eminent gift of intelligence. Some even argued that the birth of writing is the birth of civilisation. Even though this is bold claim, but the ability to keep records and knowledge on a tangible source made history and knowledge to pass on from generations to generations. Therefore, it is understandable that critics like Derrida questioned the irony of Plato and Socrates's contempt towards writing when their work and even some condemnatory complaints were lodged through writing.

The technology of writing definitely changed the way the mind thinks and constructs as mentioned in the reading as I can argue that we could now envision and imagine what it mentioned on a written text without the need to be at a close proximity with the source/author. This could not be done through an oral society where message are reinforced through repetition and on the human's memory alone, resulting in opposing and contradictory reception of the message's meaning. So how did the inception of the writing world changes how the mind works? The bible for instance in the book of Genesis, describes to us explicitly in words how God created the world. In biblical context again, the word of God is recorded in order for Christians all around the world to get the same message and praise the word of God knowingly. If writing is a language of virus and it is claimed inhuman as mentioned in the reading, how will the religious context of utilizing the birth of alphabets plays in this statement? In Eastern religions, sacred manuscripts are highly glorified as a guideline to how human beings should behave. Thus, it is not something we should be afraid of.

Moving on to the cyberworld now, the Dadaist theory supports that everyone could be an author now through the myriad of sources available to us via the Internet. The evolution of writing made hypertext possible and opens up plenty creative outlets and opportunities for human to improvise and advance for a better future. All in all, I think I see more good than harm in writing.