" A Better Pencil" Part One

 I found it interesting in “A Better Pencil” by Dennis Baron that Plato said writing would cause forgetfulness. I feel like there is some truthfulness in that statement. Back in Plato's age they didn't have books and notepads to write notes on, it was all memorization. I think that he was trying to say that because of writing people would become reliant on text and lose their ability to retain information without a physical aid. I absolutely agree with this, I think that writing has caused us to lose much of that ability. There's no reason to memorize information if you can go pick up a book and read about it. A good example of this is studying before exams most of us do not retain the information that we read once or twice. We read the book, take the test, and forget the information just as quickly as we read it. Before there was writing people would only hear things once and then it was gone. People's memories had to be quick and not need the reinforcement of repetition. I think that we as a whole have lost that ability and we now require note cards, books, and cheat sheets to remember simple information such as a name or a phone number.