Socrates, Gutenberg, and McLuhan Walk Into a Bar: Internet Reading and the Rise of a New Literacy Paradigm

As the Internet rises as a center for reading and writing, many are expressing concerns about the fractured reading habits, shallow knowledge and shorter attention spans encouraged by digital media. Though these concerns are intuitive, they are not quite what they seem. It is not a change in our ability to think and take in information that is the issue. Instead we should understand that a new type of literacy is rising, and this literacy is bringing about a paradigm shift that is every bit as profound as was the change from oral to literate culture. Using Walter Ong’s concept of secondary orality within literate culture, this paper explores the likelihood that oral culture and literate culture are being forged into a new type of literacy that restores some of the virtues of oral culture to our society.