2022-03-30 oral culture (PK)

In today's book circle meeting Pete made an important point about wikis as "people sorters". He first mentioned that using wikis turns out to be interesting and useful for a small number of people. In fact, reading and writing, in general, are also not a widespread information sharing activity for people.

Most people exist in an oral or "vernacular" culture. They get and share information in informal chit-chat, gossip, and stories about their days. They listen to radio and podcasts; they watch tv; and they participate on chat services (Discord, Mattermost, Slack, etc.), and "the socials" (Twitter, Tik-Tok, Instagram, etc.). People get a good deal of information by hearsay, not by direct experience, nor by reading "academic" source materials.