Writing, technology, and circulation are all intertwined in
some capacity. The desire for people to connect to one-another is something
that has existed as long as humanity itself has, and the creation of writing
and new technologies, and the circulation of writing as a result, has allowed
for those connections to take place.
It can be argued that writing is a
direct byproduct of technology. Technology is more than just the computer or
tablet or smartphone that people use in their everyday lives. Technology can
mean any invention, whether tangible or otherwise, that changes the way that
people live in some capacity. In class last Thursday, the point was made that
writing itself—more precisely, the creation of an alphabet—was and is a form of
technology. Written language isn’t inherent and there is no universal means of
communication beyond slight aural and movement based cues. The mere act of
writing is, in and of itself, a product of technology and could not exist if not
for the invention of certain key elements. The alphabet was the first, but
other critical elements such as a paper and ink, the printing press, and more
modern inventions such as word processors and the Internet, have allowed
writing to develop into a means of communication now essential to society and humanity
as a whole.
However, writing in a vacuum has
little value. Written words find their meaning through the eyes of the people
that read them. Writing now, more than any other time in human history, has the
ability to reach the eyes of anyone who wants to see it. The technological
advancements of the 20th and 21st centuries have made it
so that information, opinions, and other text can be accessed by billions of
people worldwide. This unprecedented level of circulation means that more
people can connect with each other, learn new information perhaps previously unavailable
to them and understand the world and the people within it better. Much like
with writing itself, circulation on the macro scale is a direct byproduct of
the technological achievements such as those computers, smartphones, and
tablets mentioned earlier. It would be reasonable to assume that as time progresses and moves forward, as the ability for more people to access the technology that allows these things to be possible, circulation will continue to increase. More writing will become available. The scope of human interaction will continue to unrivaled by any other time in our species history. That is a special relationship, and one that is exciting to see.
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