In the long run, each media revolution off ers people an entirely new perspective through which to relate to their world. Language led to shared learning, cumulative experience, and the possibility for progress. The alphabet led to accountability, abstract thinking, monotheism, and contractual law. The printing press and private reading led to a new experience of individuality, a personal relationship to God, the Protestant Reformation, human rights, and the Enlightenment. With the advent of a new medium, the status quo not only comes under scrutiny; it is revised and rewritt en by those who have gained new access to the tools of its creation.
Unfortunately, such access is usually limited to small elite. The Axial Age invention of the twenty-two-lett er alphabet did not lead to a society of literate Israelite readers, but a society of hearers, who would gather in the town square to listen to the Torah scroll read to them by a rabbi. Yes, it was bett er than being ignorant slaves, but it was a result far short of the medium’s real potential.
Likewise, the invention of the printing press in the Renaissance led not to a society of writers but one of readers; except for a few cases, access to the presses was reserved, by force, for the use of those already in power. Broadcast radio and television were really just extensions of the printing press: expensive, one-to-many media that promote the mass distribution of the stories and ideas of a small elite at the center. We don’t make TV; we watch it.
Computers and networks finally off er us the ability to write. And we do write with them on our websites, blogs, and social networks. But the underlying capability of the computer era is actually programming - which almost none of us knows how to do. We simply use the programs that have been made for us, and enter our text in the appropriate box on the screen. We teach kids how to use soft ware to write, but not how to write soft ware. This means they have access to the capabilities given to them by others, but not the power to determine the value-creating capabilities of these technologies for themselves.