The Language of the Press

"What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind."

The Walk of Ideas designed by

Scholtz & Friends to celebrate

the invention of modern printing.

Wendell Phillips lived during the 1800's so he saw the outcomes of this Renaissance technology. The ability to communicate had always been essential to the influential people of any time period. Even more important, however, was the ability to immortalize their words. Painstaking methods, such as carving into solid rock, were employed so that a ruler could "live on" beyond his death. How else would we know of the great deeds they performed? When Gutenberg developed his printing press, suddenly it was easy to not only immortalize, but also spread one's ideas. Without it, the extent of a great mind's sprezzatura in speech and writing would have been lost or limited, as mentioned by Kekoa in our salon discussion.

On the other hand, maybe some ideas should have been lost. Violent revolutions and reformations grew out of humanistic ideas that spread quickly with the ability to mass produce writings. Dictators and despots controlled the masses with propaganda. Many lives were lost and countries were left in shambles, such as France after its revolution.

@GutenbergHumanist

I don't know about you, but I love social media. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or Instagram, I love how easy it is to hear and be heard. Nowadays, social media has become a buzzword of sorts. But what would you say if I told you this buzz started over 550 years ago? Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg, the ways we spread our thoughts around in the western world have been changing more and more since 1450.

In his post “From Gutenberg to Facebook?”, Sean M. argues that Facebook (and I’ll take the liberty here of applying his argument to all forms of social media) follows the legacy of the printing press in its spread of information. I couldn’t agree more. He then goes on to discuss how the development of social media has led to both greater connection and disconnection from those around us, asking the question “What would Gutenberg think?” I however, want to focus on the question of “why has the spread of information led to greater connectedness and disconnectedness simultaneously?”