One of the characteristics of any technological revolution is
nostalgia for the old order. Socrates, who lived a few hundred
years after the invention of the Greek alphabet, when writing was
transforming Greek culture, strenuously argued the superiority of
the oral culture it was replacing. According to Plato's (written)
account, Socrates predicted that the use of writing would weaken
memories and deprive "learners" of the chance to question what they
were being taught.