“Reading maketh a full man, […] and writing an exact man,” said Sir Francis Bacon. But what happens when the written word is overshadowed by the spoken one?
Welcome to a new era – call it postliteracy if you will – where endless paragraphs give way to short snippets, audiobooks and podcasts grow ever more popular and artificial intelligence reliably handles the nitty-gritty of spelling, grammar and style. It’s a time when you can speak your mind, quite literally, into a microphone and watch the words appear on screen, automatically polished for publication.
Educators and parents have worried for a while now that young people read less and less, particularly the lengthy texts that build advanced comprehension skills. And now that speech-to-text is so advanced, why bother honing the craft of writing meticulously by hand or fussing over orthography?
If this continues, the social stigma of “bad spelling” all but disappears. We might even slip back to the days before 1800, when vernacular languages were written in more ad hoc ways – no one thought too poorly of you if you spelled a word differently from your neighbour. People aimed for coherent expression rather than standardised spelling rules.
If literacy as we know it drifts into the background, what becomes important in schools? Perhaps we’ll see a resurgence of rhetoric – the art of persuading an audience through speech – and logic, the framework that underpins solid arguments. Rather than drilling correct spelling, teachers might guide young learners to structure a concise, compelling argument, whether delivered in person or recorded for posterity.
It’s not quite an illiterate society that beckons, but rather an evolution beyond current literacy norms. Society may become more oral, in the sense of original storytelling traditions, except this time with digital recorders and cloud storage. People will talk, machines will transcribe, AI tools will tidy up the language for broad dissemination and computers will read the texts aloud for the recipient.
In such a world, communication skills – clarity of thought, ability to hold an audience’s attention and skill at logical persuasion – become the new literacy. Some might hail this shift as liberating: no longer will mechanical scribbles of letters define someone’s intelligence. Others will lament the potential loss of deep reading, once essential for immersing oneself in complex narratives and arguments.
Of course, it’s not all rosy. Critical thinking might suffer if we rarely engage in slow, deliberate reading. Quick listening can encourage skimming, even in audio form. Inequalities could widen.
It’ll be good news for individuals with dyslexia or other learning differences, as stigma around spelling fades – but bad news for visual learners. Rhetorical flourishes and verbal artistry could flourish, bringing us closer to the vibrant oral traditions of yore.
Ultimately, this move towards postliteracy is neither purely dystopian nor entirely utopian – it’s simply a reflection of changing technology and human adaptability. We’ve witnessed grand shifts in communication throughout history: from oral epics to manuscripts, from handwritten scrolls to movable type, from newspapers to 24/7 social media. The next revolution may well see the written word step aside for the spoken – and all the while, our voices and ideas remain the driving force.
Whether you mourn the potential demise of the written page or welcome a future of effortless transcription, one thing is sure: good thinking and persuasive communication will be more valuable than ever. After all, a glitch-free AI-driven grammar engine is no substitute for a well-reasoned, original thought – spoken or typed.