Co-existing

Some of Tyner’s writing made me think about when and why some new technologies REPLACE other older ones, while other new electronic formats co-exist with older formats.

I like Ong’s explanation about how new technologies that are based on the older ones actually can help reinforce and strengthen the older ones. Just like print and oral traditions blended together to produce a new, stronger form of oral language and discourse, other forms of electronic media can strengthen its base. (Tyner 56) I found some comfort and common sense in Graff’s conclusion #9: “Literacies co-exist. One form of communication does not automatically displace another” (Tyner 39). Writing didn’t replace speaking, the music video didn’t kill the radio, and in my opinion on-line books and readers are not going to replace paper books. (Although the author of this article, If cars can replace buggies, e-books can replace p-books would disagree.) These things can build on each other without eliminating one.

However, lots of new technologies definitely do replace old ones. Sometimes this happens when newer media and technology have the same exact purpose as an older item, such as the online computer databases replacing card catalogs. The online catalogs have taken the place of the cards, for the most part since they can work more efficiently. For another example, record players have been replaced by newer music technology (8-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs, MP3s….). That’s not to say there isn’t some that don’t still appreciate the value that the older items have, such as the handwritten notes or even the smudges on the card catalog, or the crackly sound of a record, but they aren’t something easily found by the general public today.

So is it possible for older technologies to be able to transcend time?