• They become ACCESSIBLE

• Their FUNCTIONING meets the needs, desires, or imaginings of people in the culture

• Their products can be AUTHENTICATED as true and reliable

Examples (Stage of Acceptance Charts): Writing itself; the pencil; where does the personal computer fit in?

Some have been strongly opposed to using certain technologies—and might have been opposed to computer-based writing tools as well: Plato, Thoreau both looked to older patterns of communication as preferable (but both exploited the new wave! There's a lesson here...)

 Evolution or Revolution?

• When are CHANGES "Revolutions"?  Consider:

• change from cuneiform to alphabetic writing took at least 2,000 years

• change from manuscript book production to power-driven print production took about 350 years

• change from handwriting/typing to digital text processing has taken about 15 years.

• Is there a "revolution" here?

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