Words, signs, icons

Reading Ong, 74-76, "Words Are Not Signs", oddly made me think about the replacement of text-driven menus with icons on computers. I hate it. I am a word guy, and I hate having to interpret icons. Apparently, the new version of Office has replaced the text menu with something called "The Ribbon", which I dread. Anyway, icons are not intuitive to me, anyway. Words I get.