i’ve been reading Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy, which if one can get past the fact that it is incredibly dense and somewhat esoteric, proposes some concepts that help reinforce the idea of the electronic-era as ushering in a new manner of communication.  backpacking on mcluhan’s earlier revolutionary theory of “medium as the message,” Ong delves into the history of oral and literal cultures and how in actuality, literary cultures are the minority and it has been the mistake of literate cultures to view oral cultures in terms of their lack of literacy.  Ong moreover, would argue that oral cultures are the more primary, dominant form of communication and that writing, though important, is static and unresponsive.  now however we find ourselves in a third form of communication, or a ’secondary orality’ which uses writing in a manner so instantaneous via text messaging, IM, etc., that it translates ideas at the speed nearly the same as ‘primary orality’.

reading that, i immediately thought of a scene in an episode of Californication, when David Duchovny’s character bemoans the loss of the english language when the girl he is dating responds to his question with BRB.  although one could argue that BRB is part of a new lexicon that circumvents the english language.  and even recently while flipping randomly through a magazine i see a little tip that says IM at work actually improves work flow better than something like e-mail because the communication is instantaneous in such a way that you don’t have to wait for a response before proceeding.  now while some companies might look down at the use of such things as chat-rooms or IM at work, certainly it makes sense that within an organization, it is a lot faster than getting up and walking over to someone on the 12th floor…