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I personally think Mcluhun should be required listening for anyone in the 21st century interested in reading and writing. He comments on the effects of a society switching from mainly literate information to mainly auditory, and vice versa. So for instance, when the Ancient Greeks shift from mainly auditory, bardic stories to written stories, they invent philosophy and the ideas of the realm of the forms. He also argues that the linear reading of text in the west (left to right) creates ordered, linear thoughts whereas  auditory information has the opposite effect of making thoughts unstructured as it does not have a linear, left to right structure. His prediction for our modern age is one of stasis, or cycles. And that's the thing I've noticed about the last decade: everyone's having the same, endless arguments about the same topics. The same politicians with the same reactions  It's gotten to the point where I don't even take a side in these things any more because everything seems completely pointless. I don't think anyone even notices what they're doing, I certainly didn't when I was in that miserable vortex, and I hope people at least find something interesting here. 

Here's a good introductory video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0pcoC2l7ToI&pp=ygUQbWFyc2hhbGwgbWNsdWhhbg%3D%3D

 

I don't listen to podcasts and will generally try to find articles before the last resort of newsclips, good to know my thinking is the most structured of all.

I probably will not listen to this either, though I did read your post, what a thought provoking, structured tl;dl.

Probably wise, I used to listen to podcasts and things like that all the time. I've completely kicked the habit now thanks to all this.  

I think you can get his book "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" for free online, and there have been a few articles written too. He has many, many more thoughts about this topic. But when you start to realise this, you begin to see these cycles cropping up in the most suspicious places. The early Greek Myths are full of cyclical punishments (Ixion, Sisphyus), and sometime after Fredrich Neiszche decides to attack the concept of reading, he comes up with his "eternal recurrance" concept. 

I suspect Tolkien was at least partially aware of this considering his poem "Mythopoeia" states: "I will not walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends
if by God's mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve the same
unfruitful course with changing of a name."

Frodo and Sam's thoughts: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zxMvva0ZSyA

"Hey, Paul!" *swings ax* "Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you fucking stupid bastard!"