In reading both Ong and Baron, they both draw on the words of Plato's Socrates. Socrates remarks that writing is simply a thing, something to be manipulated, something inhuman, artificial, a manufactured product, is unresponsive, destroys memory, cannot defend itself as the spoken word can. Socrates sounds much like the modern day educators who see evil in the way that any new mode of technology interrupts their comfort zone.

This simple thing of writing in Plato's time was the technology that would eventually rule over the oral/spoken word. In the aristocratic Greek society of poets, poets were like politicians. The words they spoke were so well articulated and charasmatically delivered that speaker and audience were connected as one. The fear of writing taking away that power is only natural as a politician fears losing his core political base by becoming out of touch with his/her audience.

The prefix meta has two meanings. 1. to change or transpose. 2. after, beyond or higher. When Gee speaks of meta-knowledge (or knowledge about knowledge), intellectuals defy change and there is no knowledge higher than the knowledge they have.

Trying to find a good mix of technology, reading and writing is not an easy task. Technology is complicated in its concept, but easy in its application. I do not know how to make a computer, but the use of one to me is easy. Writing is easy in its concept, yet hard in its application. Reading involves word comprehension and cognitive learning skills that combine both technology and writing. You rarely find a person that can read and not write or vice versa. The skills go hand in hand. In my case, technology has been a godsend. I have always exhibited strong reading and writing skills as a youth and adult. Spending long hours (sometimes 8-10), at the local library reading while my youthful counterparts would be playing basketball or enjoying other activities. Technology has actually made me a better reader and writer. The time element can be stressful when searching ardously through library periodicals. The travel time to destinations (home and library), can be uncomfortable depending on what mode of transportation you have. I am a private person so taking the bus is uncomfortable to me. What technology has done for me in the area of reading and writing is give me focus and access to more material. Many times i would go to the library for a certain book and it would be checked out and i would have to wait for the person to bring it back. With the internet i can access any material i want without waiting.

It would be remiss of me not to think that i do not feel the effects that the access to pop up knowledge has on meta-knowledge. Quick letter access involves little thought, even less concentration. There are times where i find myself drifting in thought when i read a book. This would have never happened in the past. I was like Rodriguez reading every chance i got and every place i could. My reasoning and rationale has been effected to a degree because we don't calculate as human beings when we access computer information. The subject is typed in and we wait for the computer to do work that we have become to lazy to do. This doesn't require a lot of knowledge, just the word in question to be looked up. Knowledge in its concept and application require the ability to separate and mentally process information. My cognitive skills sometimes take a back seat to easily available information.

Blogging is more spontaneous than writing. When i am writing i take pauses, analyze what i am going to say, go over it more than once and proof read the life out of it. I find blogging more useful because i like spontaneity. I get a rush when i am typing and without much thought the words seem to flow right along. Blogging involves much less structure. Sure we do use the basics of writing, but paragraph structure and overall organization are not as detailed as in formal writing. This isn't bad because if you understand the principles and processes of basic writing you will not stray too far from them. In retrospect maybe Plato's Socrates was accurate when he said that those who use writing will become forgetful. They would rely on an external source for what they lack in internal resources. You can apply this to the technology of computers versus writing. We have made computers our external sources for our lacking of writing as an internal resource.