Have you ever really pondered how much power words have? They are lines and curves and dots but when you interpret them, they transcend beyond mere physical representation. Behind every word is a meaning and consequently, an emotion that we carry along with it. Who you are may change your interpretation of the word of course, but even so, we are all still very much lead by their power. With words, the intangible can be touched, the voiceless can be heard, and the dreams of the brilliant and inspired can become the dreams of the dull and apathetic.
This is a subject that fascinates me because I often think of what the future will be like and in turn, I can’t help thinking of how far we’ve come already. So we started out just making sounds, right? Then one day we decided on what that sound would mean specifically, then we made a symbol for it, but eventually, we needed more ambiguous symbols because a simple representation was not enough. Just as every instrument has a certain number of notes, we have developed our own alphabets to determine what words we can create and like music, how we string together these words creates the meaning we intend to convey. And just as in music, words can be mixed and matched to nearly any degree while still maintaining some sort of coherent value.
Let us quickly walk through history and see how we have evolved in communication. First, man makes sound, then writes it down, then man has a common language with other men and now we have written and verbal communication. So in the beginning, if you wanted to talk to other people, you either wrote it on paper and sent it away with someone to be delivered to the reader of your choice and that was that, but in today’s society, not much has really changed except for the mediums of which the word travels and the very speed of it now is dizzying in comparison to its origins. Messages that would have taken years by ship to be delivered can now be sent by computers in mere seconds.
In this day and age, things are changing quickly and seldom in society do you have one thing changing and not everything else. Words need to travel fast because our messages would be outdated by the time they reached their destination in current times. The video game you write to your cousin about may have already had a sequel out that is everything like the original and then some. Not all that has to do with the written word is just about what we say to one another in friendly passing though. Our words can be used to construct limitations and barriers on our very behavior and we decree them as law.
While I cannot claim to be a religious man, I can say that most religious texts are simply laws of behavior to guide whatever society for which they were created. Doubt the power of the word? Try burning a bible or Koran and see what kind of reaction you get—chances are it will be extreme. Logically speaking, what does it matter if you simply singe away one transmission of a message which has been written a billion times? We cannot simply ignore words, as any one who has ever broken a written contract can attest, as they are the final say on what really is “is”. Words lay a foundation that to us would not otherwise be there, that could be shrugged off or forgotten for emotional convenience, for let’s face it, people are moody bastards. We react in ways the words couldn’t have predicted, so therefore, the words must be reinterpreted and rewritten so as to convey the same message without allowing for a loophole.
Will we be texting in ten years or will it simply be video texts? I have a tendency to think that we will never truly abandon the word as it is in a sense private, somewhat impersonal, and open to interpretation. It is so much easier to say things in writing then it is to say them in speaking because when we write, we are concentrating on the message and not the person, as to when we are speaking, we are more aware of the persons reaction. The other reason is simply speed. In our “1-2-3 done!” society, there is no time to hear an entire page read aloud when you can scan it over in a quarter of the time, but as technology progresses, we sort of loop back to how things use to be, sort of like going so far into time that you go back to the beginning and start all over again. So now you can walk in the park in New York and talk on a video phone with someone in Japan. Words can never truly tell us what we see when we look at something, they can only guide us and it is that flaw which will keep the medium itself from going any farther then it has already.
Fear not though, the word is not going any where, but now it has much more competition then it ever has before. Books gave way to television but eventually, voicemail gave way to the text message, so it is not clear in which direction we will choose to take our own technology. What is clear is that we are all becoming more increasingly aware of each other as we are all becoming further unified by the ubiquitous technologies of our age. One mystery which has yet to be solved is what will happen to the written word, as more and more hard copy is translated into an electronic equivalent. How much is being lost? For that matter, how much has already been lost in translation of already ancient texts? And to finish this, I can’t help wonder if it really matters what is genuine any way, since we basically see what we want to most the time. Do we make this world step by step or are we simply dancing to a beat that we aren’t even consciously hearing?
No comments:
Post a Comment