Writing is a technology that restructures thought

In Ong's paper, he stated that literacy is imperious in high-technology cultures and defined the term "illiterate" who lack literacy. He said, "Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form." He gave an example which is the understanding of "nevertheless". In functionally literate persons' mind, they cannot comply without ever allowing any letters at all to enter their imaginations. However, in the mind of a person who from a completely oral background will think only of the real word, a sequence of sounds. Ong said, "Writing was an intrusion." There are four arguments from Plato's objections: 1. Writing is inhuman, pretending to establish outside the mind what in reality can only be in the mind. 2. A written text is basically unresponsive. 3. Writing destroys memory. 4. Written word cannot defend itself as the natural spoken word can. "One weakness in Plato's position is that he put these misgivings about writing into writing." Ong said, and "The technology of writing was not merely useful to Plato for broadcasting his critique of writing, but it also had been responsible for bringing the critique into existence."