Kelly – https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540kbrett/2025/09/14/does-language-shape-the-way-we-think/

Kelly’s post reflects on how shifting from oral to written communication alters the way ideas are shared, understood, and preserved. She emphasizes the immediacy and fluidity of oral exchange, how conversations allow for clarification, emotion, and spontaneous meaning-making. Writing, in contrast, introduces structure and intentionality. It slows thought down, encourages organization, and creates a record that can be revisited or interpreted by others long after the original moment. Kelly’s reflection highlights how each mode contributes differently to understanding, and how writing invites a more deliberate relationship with ideas.

My own Task 2 explores similar territory, particularly the way writing externalizes memory and transforms the process of thinking. I focused on how moving ideas into written form creates distance, making it possible to revise, reorganize, and strengthen them. This shift from an oral context to a literate one not only preserves information but also changes how we interact with it, allowing ideas to become more stable, transferable, and layered over time. Like Kelly, I noted that writing reshapes communication practices, but I framed this change more through the lens of cognition and the preservation of knowledge.

The Overlap

Where our posts overlap most clearly is in recognizing that writing doesn’t simply replace oral communication but rather changes the balance between immediacy and permanence. Kelly’s emphasis falls on the relational and conversational qualities of oral exchange, while mine leans more toward how writing alters the internal processes of thought. Together, these perspectives show that the shift to written communication influences both how people connect with one another and how they structure and refine their ideas.