Into the Electronic Millennium by Sven Birkerts

Sophie Raimondo Schmid

Throughout history, human beings have been able to bequeath their history, thoughts, beliefs,

theories, dilemmas, and jokes from ancient Egypt until now. Nevertheless, digital innovations

generate an evolution in the way individuals, communicate, read, write, and pass knowledge

through generations. The transition of print culture into computer technology, provoke an impact

in the way humans approach communication, education, and individual confidentiality in the 21st

century in western society.

The language and expressions of a society submerges and develops from traditional

literature, for instance books, newspapers, and even old manuscripts. However, with the

implementation of social media and digital communication, language will have a negative effect.

This new technology will erase slowly the uniqueness way of expression inherited and fomented

in the past and will replace it with slangs. For example, ‘yolo’ (you only live once), ‘tbh’ (to be

honest) and ‘asap’ (as soon as possible). As Sven Birkerts (1994) stated, “The complexity and

distinctiveness of spoken and written expression, which are deeply bound to traditions of print

literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of ‘plainspeak.’” (p.67)

On the other hand, the way society experience the antiquity relates to sentences, paragraphs,

chapters, books, and novels ancestors bequeathed. Nevertheless, the sanctuaries where this

breeze from the past are kept are being forgotten by the youth and replaced by the usage social

media, specifically Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Furthermore, the work of Birkerts (1994) warns us, of the disappearance of “the ideal of the

isolated individual” (p.68), in other words individual confidentiality will vanish. ‘Cookies’ is the
name of a digital algorithm in the cyberspace, which saves data of the user, with the purpose of

remembering the information and using it to persuade the operator into various actions (“What

are Cookies?” 2021). For example, advertising, keeping credit card information or saving you

username and password.

It is of utmost importance, to identify these negative impacts that the transition into computer

technology is causing, such as deteriorating communication skills, erasing knowledge of the past,

and violating individual confidentiality. However, if these consequences are identified, prevention,

call to action and balance could be establish. Yet, this reflection makes the subsequent questions

arise; is the balance between technology and preservation of this knowledge and distinctiveness

vocabulary possible? Would this equilibrium of technology and print culture take the lead towards

a positive development?

Bibliography

Birkerts, S. (1994). Into the electronic millennium. The Gutenberg Elegies,: Faber & Faber Inc.

(p.67)

Birkerts, S. (1994). Into the electronic millennium. The Gutenberg Elegies,: Faber & Faber Inc.

(p.68)

Kaspersky. (2021). What are Cookies?

www.Kaspersky.Com.https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies