The average person doesn't pay much attention to how we perceive speaking and writing: event or thing? Writing and Speaking It is so innate, or as Ong says about writing “deeply internalized” in most of us that we use these methods of communication every day without considering what they mean for the way we communicate and even perceive ourselves and others. Ong describes writing itself as a technology that changes the way we look at words in general, both spoken and written. These ideas can be especially applied to computers and Internet technology as methods of communication. Ong states that writing is a thing and not an event. Writing seems to be an extension of speech which makes it more permanent. For Ong, speech is ephemeral and fleeting. Once something is said, it is no longer there, an event has passed. When expressed in words, speech takes on a physicality, like a thing and therefore permanence. Spoken words end and can later be forgotten. Written words can last as long as the material that contains them, but the form of words as speech can only last as long as the words that speak them speak to them. While Ong argues that writing is not an event, the claim can also be argued that both the written word and speech are events. Both communicate something in a certain place and time even if their permanence is certainly different. To argue that speech is an event, Ong next claims that speech is produced at a certain time, addressed by and for living people, because the environment is “more than a context of words.” Writing also has these characteristics, however, although Ong makes the distinction that writers must fictionalize an audience and a setting which challenges the claim that writing is an event...... middle of paper.... ..and physical The nature of writing has many repercussions on the transmission of ideas. Today it is impossible to imagine society without writing. We have volumes and volumes of literature preserved from bygone eras whether in science, history, or religion. In an oral society this would not be possible. Since then, the preservation of these works has allowed us to advance from generation to generation. While Plato may not have appreciated writing as a useful tool, it still allowed us to study his works with an accuracy that memory alone could not provide. Records themselves are an important part of the functioning of our society, both genealogical and financial. Works Cited Citations Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Routledge, 1982. Saenger, Paul. Space between: the origins of silent reading. Sanford: Stanford University. Press, 1997.