writing as a technology

Writing as a Technology

The standard definition of technology is
The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives.
The scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective.
Electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group: a store specializing in office technology.
Anthropology. The body of knowledge available to a society that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.
Writing is considered technology because in a sense it is a method that does solve many problems more efficiently than without it. Communication wouldn’t be the same without writing. At some point in human history writing was not around. Surely around that campfire, in that dank cave those primitive people who invented writing thought, on some level, that this method would help them communicate better. A lasting impression on a cave wall could communicate stories for the ages. The third definition seems to fit writing in there right along with manual arts and skills. The expanded form of the definition would be technology is anything that applies a new systematic technique, method or approach to solve a problem. Goody talks of the distinction between writing and oral communication in differing cultures, classes and in one’s self. He also says that one can not exist exclusively and that the two modes, oral and writing, feed off each other. Since both are outlets of creative human thought these two should be dynamic and fluent in nature. The way people talk determines how they collect and form sentences on a page. Also, in turn, the more literate a person (i.e. the more words and contexts the person is more familiar with) the easier it is for that person to converse and communicate orally.