Marshall McLuhan began writing about the possibility and speculating about the character of a "post-literate society" 60 years ago. He had sent his "The End of the Gutenberg Era" outline about it to Ezra Pound in 1951(!). When he finally got started, it only took him a month to write The Gutenberg Galaxy, with an old mechanical typewriter but mainly by hand. Yes, once upon a time everybody used to do that as mere routine, but, how impossible does that seem to us now? "There were giants in the earth in those days."
Arthur Miller began worrying about the same thing around the same time especially in terms of modes of communication and performances by politicians, and I suspect the closer a highly-literate intellectual's connection to the theater and entertainment sectors, and also to the commercialized aspects of which in Baby Boomer youth culture, the more apparent the emerging trends would seem.
Patrick Tucker wrote about it 14 years ago at the dawn of the smartphone age in The Futurist and, amusingly, quoted another article from The Atlantic:
"In a July 2008 Atlantic article entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr beautifully expresses what so many have been feeling and observing silently as society grapples with the Internet and what it means for the future: “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory…. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.… My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”"
My guess is that if you restricted your search to substack the first mention of the term would be, um, well, me, in the comments here a few years ago.
Everybody with kids around that age where they should be rapidly advancing in reading skills knows that the kids these days are *years* behind previous generations in the development of those skills. Even most adults under 40 have lost significant practice and patience for long-form reading, in the manner of those who were once fully capable of navigating whole large cities by memory and paper maps but who know that whole skill-set has atrophied and disappeared after years of total GPS-dependency.
I don't buy the whole "Axial Age Magnitude Reversal and De-Rationalization" these about it, but I have no doubt whatsoever that post-literacy is doing very bad things to our brains, especially to young brains.
"You don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's work." - "Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called 'TV, Media, and Culture' so I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan have a great deal of validity." - "Oh do you? Well that's funny because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here." ... "You know nothing of my work ... How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!" - "Boy, if life were only like this."
I'm reading through the Mir book right now and would love to participate in a conversation. I thought the natural next step wasn't going to be about a return to oral culture but something about how programming code made new things concrete and easier to copy than anything we have ever seen in the past.
Hey Arnold ! I am LA until January 5th - would love to meet up - email me at cantleyb2@gmail.com or shoot me a text at (929) 909-6591 - look forward to it (-:
Yes to a book discussion. If I only read one, should it be the new one or his older one?
Tho you should maybe also suggest a talk with Rob Henderson about his upcoming Feb. book, which is likely to be far more accessible to a mass audience. So he’s likely to be busy in a PR tour.
"There are 16 whole sites, he says, that deploy some variation of a swastika on Substack..."
Maybe I should shamelessly replace my Substack logo for something that vaguely resembles a swastika (say the Isle of Man flag, or one of those flower patterns that look like a swastika if you are really drunk) in order to get some free publicity.
"This book is about orality, which once was obsolesced by writing, and about literacy, which is now becoming obsolesced by digital media."
It seems plausible that smartphones affected test scores and literacy but how does digital media obsolesce literacy? Or is that an intentional exaggeration?
One used to know to read and “look up” info for facts to use in answer to many questions. Now YouTube tutorial or Google for quick answer.
Before the Harry Potter movies were made, everyone had to read the books to find out what happened, or the LOTR. Now most see the movies and don’t read those great books, nor any books.
Marshall McLuhan began writing about the possibility and speculating about the character of a "post-literate society" 60 years ago. He had sent his "The End of the Gutenberg Era" outline about it to Ezra Pound in 1951(!). When he finally got started, it only took him a month to write The Gutenberg Galaxy, with an old mechanical typewriter but mainly by hand. Yes, once upon a time everybody used to do that as mere routine, but, how impossible does that seem to us now? "There were giants in the earth in those days."
Arthur Miller began worrying about the same thing around the same time especially in terms of modes of communication and performances by politicians, and I suspect the closer a highly-literate intellectual's connection to the theater and entertainment sectors, and also to the commercialized aspects of which in Baby Boomer youth culture, the more apparent the emerging trends would seem.
Patrick Tucker wrote about it 14 years ago at the dawn of the smartphone age in The Futurist and, amusingly, quoted another article from The Atlantic:
"In a July 2008 Atlantic article entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr beautifully expresses what so many have been feeling and observing silently as society grapples with the Internet and what it means for the future: “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory…. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.… My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”"
My guess is that if you restricted your search to substack the first mention of the term would be, um, well, me, in the comments here a few years ago.
Everybody with kids around that age where they should be rapidly advancing in reading skills knows that the kids these days are *years* behind previous generations in the development of those skills. Even most adults under 40 have lost significant practice and patience for long-form reading, in the manner of those who were once fully capable of navigating whole large cities by memory and paper maps but who know that whole skill-set has atrophied and disappeared after years of total GPS-dependency.
I don't buy the whole "Axial Age Magnitude Reversal and De-Rationalization" these about it, but I have no doubt whatsoever that post-literacy is doing very bad things to our brains, especially to young brains.
Mir's book revolves around ideas and quotes from McLuhan and his various co-authors.
"You don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's work." - "Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called 'TV, Media, and Culture' so I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan have a great deal of validity." - "Oh do you? Well that's funny because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here." ... "You know nothing of my work ... How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!" - "Boy, if life were only like this."
" Even most adults under 40 have lost significant practice and patience for long-form reading"
I know I have, and I'm well over 40.
The Atlantic isn’t as interesting as your Substack..
I'm reading through the Mir book right now and would love to participate in a conversation. I thought the natural next step wasn't going to be about a return to oral culture but something about how programming code made new things concrete and easier to copy than anything we have ever seen in the past.
I'm out of the country till 12/27 but might be able to meet if you are still in LA
Hey Arnold ! I am LA until January 5th - would love to meet up - email me at cantleyb2@gmail.com or shoot me a text at (929) 909-6591 - look forward to it (-:
yes to an LA meetup weekend of Dec 30th or Jan 6th - I'll drive down from Santa Barbara for it. Very much appreciate your work.
Yes to a book discussion. If I only read one, should it be the new one or his older one?
Tho you should maybe also suggest a talk with Rob Henderson about his upcoming Feb. book, which is likely to be far more accessible to a mass audience. So he’s likely to be busy in a PR tour.
Yes, let's have a discussion. Might be useful to revisit Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death."
I would also be interested in an LA meetup - either weekend
Patrick Joyce
I would be interested in meeting on one of the weekends.
"There are 16 whole sites, he says, that deploy some variation of a swastika on Substack..."
Maybe I should shamelessly replace my Substack logo for something that vaguely resembles a swastika (say the Isle of Man flag, or one of those flower patterns that look like a swastika if you are really drunk) in order to get some free publicity.
Count me in for any LA meetup!
Any chance for an NYC meetup?
"This book is about orality, which once was obsolesced by writing, and about literacy, which is now becoming obsolesced by digital media."
It seems plausible that smartphones affected test scores and literacy but how does digital media obsolesce literacy? Or is that an intentional exaggeration?
One used to know to read and “look up” info for facts to use in answer to many questions. Now YouTube tutorial or Google for quick answer.
Before the Harry Potter movies were made, everyone had to read the books to find out what happened, or the LOTR. Now most see the movies and don’t read those great books, nor any books.
Finding YouTubes requires a search (literacy). Google requires that and more.
Books were turned into movies long before digital media. Harry Potter was before smartphones.
Most people didn't read books before smartphones and digital media. Most didn't before TV.
How about people who never would have read a book but know they are reading and writing tweets and text messages?
I’d be up for an LA meet up though it may depend on which part of town. Coming from Thousand Oaks, I have only so much patience with the 101 and 405.
I'm based in Los Angeles and would happily attend a meet up the weekend of the 30th.