In the modern world, there is a big choice of communication tools that can help to express the thoughts or influence someone’s opinion. It is possible to use photos or videos as we have the access to all technical means, but written words remain one of the most popular tool.
What could cause the sender to prefer written communication? First of all, it is a fact that writing is material and verifiable. Typically, when using written communication both sender and recipient have documentary evidence that it took place. For people that is really important as they can easily make a copy to prove some information. They think that nothing written can not be changed. That is why in most cases people always believe in what is written in newspapers, magazines or books.
As a rule, we are much more attentive while writing. We should carefully consider the thoughts that we want to convey in a written statement, as writing is always an extension of our speech (Maier, 2004). Thus, written communication, as a rule, is more robust, coherent and comprehensible, as writer always wants to point to the significance of what he or she is saying (Epstein et al., 2005).
In Ancient Greece, thoughts about writing were not the same as we have now. Walter Ong (2002) thinks that Socrates complaints about writing such as that it weakens the memory, leading to a lack of interaction or makes disembodied speakers and listeners look like the fear of the twentieth century when the computers appeared or the anxiety of XV century because of the spread of printing. For Plato writing was something like alien technology (Ong, 2002). To tell the truth it is not natural to write for people, but that is one of the biggest creations of the human mind. It is possible to agree with Ong as the writing can have very strong influence on the people. Good writer can make everyone laugh or cry only after several sentences. That is the reason why some books, essays or articles can be popular even if they were writer several centuries ago.
In modern society, writing has less influence than one hundred years ago. Later one novel was able to change the course of history. Now we have television, radio and Internet and they influence our mind every day. For a lot of people it much more quicker and easier to watch the news or listen to them as they can see the visual picture or hear the voice with all intonations and emotions. In such case, we can agree that mentioned means of communication have bigger influence on people’s minds.
If to talk from the scientific point of view, writing will be always in the top positions, as there is no better way to explain own theories, investigations or discoveries. Every writer wants to save his or her work for centuries and influences next generations. Writing is the best form to save all this information.
References
- Maier N. (2004). The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing. New York, NY: Random House.
- Epstein D., Kenway J., Boden J. (2005). Writing for Publication. London: Sage Publications UK.
- Ong W. (2002). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Routledge.
