Is Plato right?

I believe Plato was right about the dangers of writing.  In Phaedrus, Socrates tells a legend about a god, Theuth,  who gave the gift of writing to King Thamus, being in charge of dispersing the gift to the people of Egypt.  Theuth believed that he found the way to help with memorization and wisdom, although Thamus disagreed.  King Thamus thought the exact opposite; it helped with reminding, not remembrance. This exactly translates to the use of an agenda nowadays.  People jot down notes and other important information onto an agenda in order to "remember" them every time they open it.  I wouldn't remember after it being written down once.  As for the sake of history being written down, however, how can one remember an event when they weren't even part of that era? Therefore, people have to be reminded of those same instances, so that way horrible events in history do not repeat themselves.

King Thamus also mentions about how writing will only give "semblance of the truth", not the actual truth. They will appear to have complete knowledge and understanding, but in reality, know nothing about it.  One will get bored of their company, showing "wisdom without reality".  Socrates brings up the point of whether it is truth or not or who speaks of it and where the tale comes from.

However, this point intrigued me the most.  Once again, Socrates explains to Phaedrus that he believes that "writing is unfortunately like painting". Writing is silent, cannot speak for its own, cannot defend itself, nor answer questions. Same goes for speeches.  I completely agree with his view on it   I would rather have a intriguing conversation with the "soul" of the person I'm speaking to, where he or she can answer my questions, speak, or listen to what I have to say.  It sometimes also doesn't have the emotional depth or attitude it needs to be understood properly.

All in all, I agree mostly with Plato's view of the good and bad of writings.  Although, I have to say, writing is not the same as being in the action of it all, writing gets us as close as possible.  It gives us the ability to illustrate in our minds what we are learning or what we have forgotten.  We gather some knowledge, whether it is only a small part or the entirety of it.