"The world is full of theories of everything. The smartphone theory of everything argues that our personal devices are responsible for the rise of political polarization, anxiety, depression, and conspiracy theories-not to mention the decline of attention spans, intelligence, happiness, and general comity. The housing theory of everything pins inequality, climate change, obesity, and declining fertility on the West's inability to build enough homes."
"They argued that the invention of the alphabet and the rise of literacy were among the most important events in human history. These developments shifted communications from an age of orality-in which all information was spoken and all learning was social-to an age of literacy, in which writing could fix words in place, allowing people to write alone, read alone, and develop ever more complicated ideas that would have been impossible to memorize."
"The age of literacy made possible a set of abstract systems of thought-calculus, physics, advanced biology, quantum mechanics-that form the basis of all modern technology. But that's not all, Ong and his ilk said. Literacy literally restructured our consciousness, and the demise of literate culture-the decline of reading and the rise of social media-is again transforming what it feels like to be a thinking person."
Multiple theories of everything attribute broad social and cultural shifts to single causes, such as smartphones or housing shortages. The smartphone theory links personal devices to political polarization, anxiety, depression, conspiracy thinking, and declines in attention, intelligence, happiness, and social comity. The housing theory blames inadequate homebuilding for inequality, climate change, obesity, and falling fertility. The orality theory locates change in the invention of the alphabet and the rise of literacy, which enabled solitary written thought and complex abstract systems. A decline in reading and rise of social media may be driving a return toward oral, social modes of consciousness.
Read at The Atlantic
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