Ong Literacy

Ong uses the difference of written language and spoken language. On part II, Ong refers to Plato and Socrates for their beliefs which are against writing. "Writing, Plato has Socrates say in Phaedrus, is inhuman, pretending to establish outside the mind what in reality can only be in the ind." Ong uses this quot to refer to computers which have made us "inhuman." In part I, Ong begins talking how writing is an important language for the literate, but it is difficult for the illiterate to understand especially in high-technological nations like the U.S.A. "Morever, in high technology cultures-- which, more and more, are setting the style for cultures across the world-- since literacy is regarded as so unquestionable normative and normal, the deviancy of illiterates tends to be thought of as lack of a simple mechanical skill." In this quote, Ong says that illiterates have trouble in high technological nations because they do not possess one of the most important thinks of that nation, written language.