Is The Written Word Going To Disappear?

Seeing as how many people get their information from Television, Radio, and Pod-casts, will the written word remain as a source of information? Video Games, Television, Film, and other things are becoming popular in entertainment; will they replace written books?

Even in schools, more and more, teaching is oral, electronically presented, or hands-on, rather than reading from textbooks. But will textbooks ever disappear? More disturbingly, many schools have dropped cursive writing, handwriting, reading, and typing classes altogether.

Videos and images are becoming increasingly popular on the internet, to the extent that some analysts believe that eventually there may be more visual images / videos than written information.

People have learned to preserve speeches, conversations, and all other uses of the spoken word via recording devices, such as the phonograph, thus ensuring that writing down stuff that people say is not necessary.

Also, some people are pushing for a language in picture form, with pictures rather than letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Such a language, they claim, would be universally understandable, and make traditional writing obsolete.

So, in light of all of this, will the written word go out ever? I think not, but I would seriously like some feedback on this.

No, written language is just too ingrained in current human culture to dump like that. Such a change would take centuries at the minimum, so I don't think any of us here would live to see it. And given the huge amount of cultural inertia (not to mention the economic inertia from certain industries)...it ain't happening.

Now, if you were to say the printed word was on its way out, I'd (grudgingly) agree. That's another topic though.

Humanity has pictoral scripts. They suck, as far as I recall. Reading and writing is too important to the initial learning of language. Writing is an important part of learning new information efficiently. Reading and writing is quiet. You can not have 100 people taking an oral exam in the same room.

Example pictoral language. It never caught on to say the least, and it's not inherently easier to understand than any textual language.

And what do you mean schools are dropping typing classes? That's ridiculous.

A significant portion of the population, including me, finds reading the best way to get information. If you miss something when you're reading, you just have to look back. If you're listening, you have to ask the person to repeat what they said, or rewind if it's video. I think it can safely be said that it won't disappear.

A significant portion of the population, including me, finds reading the best way to get information. If you miss something when you're reading, you just have to look back. If you're listening, you have to ask the person to repeat what they said, or rewind if it's video. I think it can safely be said that it won't disappear.

Texting is writing. So is written dialogue in video games. So are the words on this page.

This reminds me of that guy who thought the invention of record players would make people stop knowing how to sing.

Text is not going to disappear in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, handwriting might well go the way of the dinosaurs if connected electronics become even more ubiquitous... and good riddance, I say.

^Awwww.

Handwriting might also go the way of traditional Chinese/Japanese calligraphy and become an art form preserved by a small group of dedicated people.

More disturbingly, many schools have dropped cursive writing, handwriting, reading, and typing classes altogether.

I find that hard to believe. Where has it been done?

Dropping cursive writing seems good to me.

It had better not disappear completely. What happens if the electronic sources get wiped?

What happens if all the books catch fire spontaneously?

Digital media is a lot easier to reproduce after all, so it's much easier to keep lots o backups.

That being said, avoid storing things on hard drives. They tend to just sort of die after a while.

It better disappear. My handwriting sucks.

Handwriting is becoming uncommon, but writing isn't going anywhere. Too useful.

I...can't say I've noticed any of the stuff Aliroz is talking about. But maybe that's just because I'm checking a forum while writing a text adventure.

Incidentally, pictoral languages are still writing—they just use characters instead of letters (like Chinese). So even such a switch wouldn't mean writing was disappearing.

The schools my cousins, neighbors, and friends go to, in addition to my schools, lack any writing, reading, typing, and handwriting classes, though they had them a couple years ago. According to the principal of my high school, it's quite a common trend just about everywhere.

Cursive can go die in a fire. I only use a few of the letters and that's because I replaced the script versions because they were too close to numbers. Since I use numbers more often, letters get to change. I seriously doubt handwriting is going to disappear. It's too easy to use it for mathematics.

I don't think I can write in cursive anymore beyond my signature despite being taught it in 3rd grade and using it until high school.

Then again it doesn't matter much. My handwriting hasn't improved since the 3rd grade.

Chinese characters aren't pictorial. They represent a concept, but most of the time they don't resemble it.

I can write everything in cursive and I still think the damn thing needs to go. I understand it was a useful ability back when everything not intended for mass reproduction was handwritten; well-practiced, it is faster than block letters. But it should have gotten the boot the moment typewriters became popular, nevermind the modern world of computers and cellphones.

Personally, I do all my writing in cursive (as do all of my classmates) and wish for it to remain. It's faster than block letters, (debatably) more aesthetically pleasing and only really a problem if you have crap handwriting.

It's harder to read if you have crap hand writting. Kill It with Fire until naught but components of it are left.

@OP: No. If anything we're more literate now than we were twenty, fifty, or a hundred years ago.