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Major economies revolve around literacy, one of the major technological developments in human history. In the book Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong describes the technology of writing. He cites Plato's viewpoint on writing: Writing is inhuman; it destroys memory; and it weakens the mind. The same can be said for newer technologies, such as computersthey are inhuman and destroy memory (since computers can remember things for humans). Calculators weaken the mind because they are shortcuts that gloss over what the human mind is potentially capable of. Ong writes that the written text is unresponsive. In fact, this phobia of the written word was evident in recent history (relative to Plato). In trials that occurred a few hundred years ago, eyewitnesses (subjective information) were more credible than written documents (more objective than eyewitness accounts). Now, we find documents to be true and eyewitnesses to be faulty. Also according to Ong, the development of literacy has emphasized the sense of sight over all other senses. In oral traditions, hearing is privileged.

Communication technologies can promote either utopian or dystopian visions. For instance, the Internet can spread democracy, or it can promote piracy and pornography (exacerbating what TV has already done to society). Jacques Ellul, in The Technological Society, has a dystopian vision of technology. He finds technology to be fundamentally threatening to both human freedom and to faith. New ideas desacralize what was sacred before. These new ideas, in turn, become the new sacred objects. Christianity and the roots of Western tradition desacralized nature. The Reformation challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, and the Bible became sacred. Science soon desacralized the Bible, and science is sacred. Science remains sacred in modern society, but technology has eclipsed science as the most sacred object in society. The purpose of technology is to make all aspects of human activity absolutely efficient. Technology produces certain techniques for all human to use in everything of their lives to maximize efficiency. Considerations of love, obligation, tradition, selflessnessthat which makes us humancounter the logic of technique. Therefore, technology is very dehumanizing. Human beings want touch and empathy, but these needs are not very efficient. Technology erodes faith.

On the other hand, Nicholas Negropointe, in Being Digital, defines communication technologies

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