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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Written versus Spoken Language
Message-ID: <1488@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Wed, 25-Mar-87 19:54:21 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1488
Posted: Wed Mar 25 19:54:21 1987
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Mark Williams <miw@uqcspe.OZ> remarks:
>*Writing is just an attempt to store spoken language.*
[Emphasis is the cited author.]

I might agree with that statement had Mark said "Writing *was* just
an attempt to store spoken language."  However, literature is a mode
of communication that stands on its own, and is not the same thing
as speech at all.  It is often not a substitute but rather an entire
system in and of itself.  (For considerable discussion of this
position, see the semotics literature, especially Roland Barthes.)

My point here is that we should probably regard "electronic communications,"
be they written words or nice icons, as a substitute for traditional
forms of communication *only at the outset.*  New forms of expression,
created by technology and need, generally flow out of previous forms.
Communication by broadcast television was originally seen as an elaboration
of radio, for instance.

Eventually, if the new form of communication is successful, it develops its
own system, its own rules, its own codes, and so on.  It comes to stand
on its own, and has to be analyzed for what it is rather than what it
came from.

To the point here, I would not question that electronic communications
is currently evolving out of written communications.  But I think a
strong case can be made that, as this medium evolves, probably in the
ways similar to those suggested by Dave Taylor, it will take on its
own life.  Electronic communications won't replace written communications,
but come to co-exist in the expanding domain of human expression.

Having said that, I take the position that "computer literacy" is probably
a misnomer.  It used to mean, as some writers here have suggested, an
understanding of the workings of computers and software, and an ability
to use them effectively.  Its meaning now seems to be changing, along
with proliferation of this and related media, toward an ability to
communicate effectively (and, for some, artistically) using electronic
communications media (email, computer conferencing, and the like).

--Tom Mandel		mandel@kl.sri.com	mandel@well.UUCP