The storage of information changed our concept of the time, producing a static written history that appeared to be objectively recorded, and could be used to predict future events. Past and future became separated from present. Time began to appear as a rigid linear line, a railway of boxcars. And as we severed from the present moment of our senses, we lost cohesion becoming disconnected from our bodies, from each other, from the world around us. Communication in a print society becomes a solitary, individual process.
Individual interpretation is encouraged.
The adjective 'self' meaning 'being of the same material as the rest', becomes the prefix 'self-' meaning 'to, with, or for oneself'. Print culture brought to its zenith culminates in an individual self, rather than a tribal self. The idea of self as a collection of individual personality traits is peculiar to print cultures. In collectivist or group-centered cultures, the self is embedded in community. Tribal man is defined in context.