Plato's argument wasn't that his era was the last for freedom, it was that writing would spoil people's ability to memorize their oral traditions when they have the comfort of reaching for their notes. And in fact he was probably right about that, and we experience the continuation in the extreme today with the convenience of Wikipedia, and I can hardly find my way downtown when my phone battery dies and I can't check Google Maps.
New technologies do change the world, and society, usually in irreversible ways. In many aspects for the better, but in some aspects for the worse. To argue that because Plato was wrong about writing, therefore the things you value about society will continue as always, is to bury your head in the sand. Freedom, anonymity, and the vulnerability of the few and powerful to the disgruntled many are all things that can disappear with the shifting sands of time and technology. An argument that they will or won't must be grounded on the merits of the particulars.
New technologies do change the world, and society, usually in irreversible ways. In many aspects for the better, but in some aspects for the worse. To argue that because Plato was wrong about writing, therefore the things you value about society will continue as always, is to bury your head in the sand. Freedom, anonymity, and the vulnerability of the few and powerful to the disgruntled many are all things that can disappear with the shifting sands of time and technology. An argument that they will or won't must be grounded on the merits of the particulars.