FROM PICKAXE TO PIXELS

Picture this: A caveman hastily pounding a stone tablet with a sharp rock; his forehead drenched with perspiration, his dark-colored eyes locked onto his masterpiece. Each piece of tablet intricately engraved with various markings depicting its own unique message. Do you imagine yourself submitting a school paper, or in this context, school tablets to your professor, with each tablet weighing at least a quarter your weight?

Is this generation not lucky? All the materials in the world are just a click away. We say goodbye to boring, overweight stone tablets! We welcome digitally-conjured millions of pixels containing infinite amounts of information!

The world is moving at a faster pace. Hours are turned into minutes. Minutes are cut into seconds. But more importantly, the medium in which knowledge, the irreplaceable foundation of human society, is shared from person to person is starting to evolve.

In the past centuries, people from all walks of life turn to the elders to seek information, for age, as they believe it to be, brings wisdom. For this reason, oral traditions flourished greatly. Knowledge was passed on to generations through word of mouth. Silence kept secrets. But then paper was discovered. Formal education thrived and knowledge spread even further. People now relied on what was written on paper; in other words, what was in ink was believed to be the truth. Years passed and computer technology came into the picture – the existence of the Internet. Oral and written traditions were ultimately combined into this new and efficient medium for information. Texts are no longer static. Sounds are incorporated to increase interactivity.

The society we live in today has changed dramatically. Cultures are rapidly morphing from those that rely on knowledge passed orally to societies that follow what is on paper but what about our motherland? Have we changed from an oral culture to a written one? In my opinion, it is yet to happen.

The Philippines is best known to be a family-oriented country. Thus, the younger generations tend to bow down before older generations who are believed to be smarter and more experienced than their counterparts. Grandchildren will turn up to their lolos or lolas to listen to stories passed on from family to family. Sons and daughters heed advises from their dads and moms. Filipinos generally appreciate the knowledge that is given to them orally by more experienced people. In addition, undying stories of folklore and mysteries are ever so popular; showing how Filipinos value what is passed on by their predecessors.

Another would be the great deal of trust put by Filipinos in interacting with other people. This is evident in how people agree to go into transactions such as lending small amounts of money without having to write it on a piece of paper. Just by simply talking, an agreement can come into terms.

Moreover, economic status may be one of the reasons why our country seems to be revolving around orality. First world countries such as the U.S. or Europe are blessed with the latest technologies. With those, they are able to successfully adapt information-sharing mediums such as the internet for dissemination. Here, technology is still not at its prime. Therefore, Filipinos make use of oral traditions as a way of communicating their experiences.

However, this situation is not always a bad thing. It actually keeps us more personal. Talking to a person directly and sharing your knowledge, more often than not, breaks the barriers of noise, something that will always be present in the world of written culture. Although noise is present everywhere, it is far less in orality.

Written culture is yet to appear in the Philippines though it may still take quite a few years to happen depending on how our country will rise in terms of economic competence. But we should all keep in mind that not being a written culture is not necessarily a bad thing, for oral traditions make up what it is to be the culture of the Filipino.