Written by: Timi James J. Empiales and Dhea Camille S. Villanueva
To quote Walter J. Ong on his published book Orality and Literacy (1982), “Knowledge of orality-literacy contrasts and relationships does not normally generate impassioned allegiances to theories but rather encourages reflection on aspects of the human condition far too numerous ever to be fully enumerated.” After digesting an interesting excerpt from the aforementioned book, personally, choosing a definite side between these two existing cultures is indeed unnecessary for they both offer a whole spectrum of things in their own ways – be it a pro or a con.
Deciding which is better between orality and literacy is actually not an easy task. Both have their benefits, but both also have their own drawbacks. The level of convenience that literacy has to offer is truly on point, yet on the other hand, the deprivation of actual conversation in today’s world could possibly hinder other possible types of learning that we actually might incur when we regularly delve into a fruitful discourse with one another.
In a global sense, cultures all over the world are really diverse. Majority are getting along with the advent of technology, whilst some are still sticking into their primary oral culture. And with regards to this, we are in no place to point a finger whether which is inferior among the two because basically these are their cultures, their norms, their way of living. The fact that they are upholding it, it is really valuable for them, and we just need to respect and leave it that way.
In this era of modernization, we cannot deny the fact that literate cultures can really be seen almost everywhere compared to primary oral culture. But as been stated by Ong in his book, “The electronic age is also an age of secondary orality.” Thus, both literacy and orality still exist and flaunt themselves up to this day – no one is being left behind.
Orality and literacy surely have different notions for each and everyone of us. But can we just let these two cultures meet halfway? Because personally, our perception on this belong to the gray area between the spectrum’s two opposing sides of black and white. We should consider both cultures in our everyday lives because these two works in pairs, if we just pick one and leave the other behind, we’ll have to suffer from its consequences one way or another.
Uttered Notion 