I see large amounts of my daily communication can be described as digital orality. But I think that's because in both literate and oral cultures, there is the sender and the receiver. In both, there is a third presence in the communication, the culture, which modulates the message's form and content. I think that now, however, it is possible for there to be communications modes where the third presence is one which does not modulate the message, it optimizes it. The form of the communication may still be writing or speaking, but labelling it digital orality will be less and less adequate because the third element shaping the message could be something active, like an algorithm, rather than passive, like a tradition.
We are entering the AI age. More and more people are interacting with AI. And they're doing so in an oral-like way of pseudo-conversation. We might be entering a fourth phase of post-literate orality.
"Ong’s concept of secondary orality inspired Robert Logan, a physics professor at the University of Toronto and co-author with Marshall McLuhan, to coin the term “tertiary orality” in 2007, which he also referred to as “digital orality.”"
There is a correction. Robert Logan didn't coin the term. It was already being used back in 1993 by John December (Characteristics of Oral Culture in Discourse on the Net):
"This discussion posits the existence of a tertiary form of orality, exhibited in computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems. This tertiary orality occurs in real-time computer conferencing systems and in asynchronous computer bulletin board systems. Although based on text, the dis- course in these computer-mediated forums exhibits many qualities of an oral culture. The existence of this text-based orality may imply that discourse need not be based upon sound in order to have oral characteristics. Rather, this paper shows that oral characteristics grow out of computer-mediated communication which gives participants greater independence over time and space than paper-based text communication. These CMC forums give rise to communities of people who participate with emotion, involvement, and expressiveness."
I see large amounts of my daily communication can be described as digital orality. But I think that's because in both literate and oral cultures, there is the sender and the receiver. In both, there is a third presence in the communication, the culture, which modulates the message's form and content. I think that now, however, it is possible for there to be communications modes where the third presence is one which does not modulate the message, it optimizes it. The form of the communication may still be writing or speaking, but labelling it digital orality will be less and less adequate because the third element shaping the message could be something active, like an algorithm, rather than passive, like a tradition.
We are entering the AI age. More and more people are interacting with AI. And they're doing so in an oral-like way of pseudo-conversation. We might be entering a fourth phase of post-literate orality.
"Ong’s concept of secondary orality inspired Robert Logan, a physics professor at the University of Toronto and co-author with Marshall McLuhan, to coin the term “tertiary orality” in 2007, which he also referred to as “digital orality.”"
There is a correction. Robert Logan didn't coin the term. It was already being used back in 1993 by John December (Characteristics of Oral Culture in Discourse on the Net):
"This discussion posits the existence of a tertiary form of orality, exhibited in computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems. This tertiary orality occurs in real-time computer conferencing systems and in asynchronous computer bulletin board systems. Although based on text, the dis- course in these computer-mediated forums exhibits many qualities of an oral culture. The existence of this text-based orality may imply that discourse need not be based upon sound in order to have oral characteristics. Rather, this paper shows that oral characteristics grow out of computer-mediated communication which gives participants greater independence over time and space than paper-based text communication. These CMC forums give rise to communities of people who participate with emotion, involvement, and expressiveness."
https://johndecember.com/john/papers/pscrc93.txt
Excellent