Secondary Orality - The Gutenberg Parenthesis

The Gutenberg Parenthesis

Ong notes that human communication has been dominated by oral culture, and the first signs of literacy date only 6 000 years ago. Tom Pettitt, Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Denmark, agrees with Ong, et al., by considering literate learning more the anomaly than the rule. He considers this to be post-Gutenberg era where knowledge is formed through digital media, delivered over the internet. Calling the previous 500 years a "Gutenberg Parenthesis", he explains that before Gutenberg, knowledge was formed orally and, now, in this post-Gutenberg era, knowledge is formed—increasingly—through "secondary orality" on the Internet