Communicating Wasn't Always This Easy

It’s really easy for us in our present day to take for granted the effortlessness with which we can pass information around, but the truth is - it hasn’t always been so easy. The process of human communication has evolved over the years, with many path-breaking inventions and discoveries heralding revolutions from cave paintings to smart phones.

Ancient World

To go back as far as the BC era, early men used cave paintings to communicate. These paintings were pictures of all sorts of different things, from hands to animals to people. These cave paintings were immobile. Then the invention of written communication began with writings made on surfaces of stone, clay, papyrus, wax, and parchment; and the information traveled only as fast as a ship could sail or a horse could run or a person could walk. This reminds me of the myth of Pheidippides, the legendary Greek messenger, who ran from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C., to announce the victory of the Athenian army over the invading Persian army in a battle in the plain of Marathon, located roughly 26 miles north of Athens. According to legend, Pheidippides raced back to the city in intense late summer heat, and upon reaching the Athenian agora, he exclaimed “Nike!” (“Victory!”) or “Rejoice! We Conquer” and then collapsed and died from exhaustion.

Printing Press

The invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg lead to an increase in sharing of information through books and within a century of its advent, the printing press was being used to print pamphlets, almanacs and newsletters in addition to Bibles and religious materials. Yet, the slow movement of information way back then was very costly. One example of this took place near New Orleans, Louisiana. Britain and the US were fighting the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans is a famous battle. As in all large battles, hundreds of troops were killed or wounded. After the battle, the Americans and the British learned there had been no need to fight. Negotiators for the US and Britain had signed a peace treaty in the city of Ghent, Belgium, two weeks earlier. Yet, news of the treaty had not reached the US before the opposing troops met in New Orleans. The battle had been a terrible waste. People died because information about the peace treaty traveled so slowly.

Telegraph

A faster method finally arrived with the invention of the telegraph. The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain and the US in the 1830s. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had to be sent separately by a device called a telegraph key. The person on the receiving end would write each letter on a piece of paper as it was received. In the 1850s, an expert with a telegraph key could send about thirty-five to forty words in a minute. It took several hours to send a lot of information. Still, the telegraph permitted people who lived in cities to communicate much faster than any other means at the time. Telegraph lines linked large city centers and the telegraph soon had a major influence on daily life. The telegraph provided information about everything. Governments, businesses and individuals used the telegraph to send information. Newspapers used the telegraph to get information needed to tell readers what was happening in the world (think of the Daily Telegraph founded in 1855). Newspapers often were printed four or five times a day as new information about important stories was received over the telegraph. 

On August 5th, 1858, the first message was transmitted by a wire cable under the Atlantic Ocean. The wire linked the US and Europe by telegraph. This meant that a terrible mistake like the battle of New Orleans would never happen again. Reports of daily news events in Europe began to appear in American newspapers and vice versa. Information now took only a matter of hours to reach most large cities in the world. This was true for the big cities linked by the telegraph; however, it was a different story if you lived in a small farming town, kilometers away from a large city. The news you got might be a day or two late. It took that long back then for you to receive your newspaper.

Telephone

Things took a new turn when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the 1870's. People could pick up the telephone —paying for long-distance calls — and speak to friends and family far away. Yet, they could only talk to one person at a time and on top of that, there were no answering machines to leave messages if a person wasn't home, or Caller ID to screen calls if they didn't feel like picking up the phone. Pay phones were the only option to call home if your car broke down on the side of the road, or if you had to stay after school.

Radio

In November 1920, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania broadcast the first radio program. That broadcast gave the results of a presidential election. Within a few short years, news and information could be heard anywhere a radio broadcast could reach. Radios did not cost much, so most people owned at least one radio, which meant they did not have to wait until their newspaper arrived. Radio reporters began to speak to the public from cities where important events were taking place. Political leaders also discovered that radio was a valuable political tool. It permitted them to talk directly to the public. Some people learned quickly that information meant power and in the 1930s many countries began controlling information. The government of Nazi Germany is a good example. Before and during World War II, the government of Nazi Germany controlled all information the German people received. The government controlled all radio broadcasts and newspapers. The people of Germany only heard or read what the government wanted them to hear or read and it was illegal for them to listen to a foreign broadcast. 

Television

After World War II, a new invention appeared – the television. In industrial nations, television quickly became common in most homes. Large companies were formed to produce television programs. Most programs were designed to entertain people. There were movies, music programs and game programs. However, television also broadcast news and important information about world events. It broadcast some education programs, too. As the number of radio and television stations around the world increased, it became harder for a dictator to control information. In the 1950s, for the first time a television broadcast showed the East Coast and the West Coast of the US at the same time. A cable that carried the pictures linked the two coasts. So, people watching the program saw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen and the Atlantic Ocean on the right side of the screen. It was not a film. People could see two reporters talk to each other even though a continent separated them. It was amazing! And by September 1956, the first telephone cable under the Atlantic Ocean made it possible to make direct telephone calls from the US to Europe.

Satellite

Less than six years later, in July, 1962, the first communications satellite was placed in orbit around the Earth. The speed of information greatly increased again, and information could be received immediately across the world. People who lived in a small village could listen to or watch world events as they happened. A good example is when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Millions of people around the world watched as he carefully stepped onto the moon on July 20th, 1969. People in large cities, small towns and villages saw the event live as it was happening. There was no delay in communicating this important information. This marked the beginning of what experts refer to as the Information Age. 

Information Age

The advent of mobile phones, and the internet further brought a huge revolution in the way we communicate. Now, instead of mailing letters, we're writing e-mails through Gmail or yahoo that can be sent instantaneously to a recipient. We can even add multiple recipients to these e-mails, so that more than one person can read them. Even more, we can send greeting cards for special occasions over the internet without delay with sites like someecards.com and GroupCard.com. No postage needed! Moreso, sending a quick note such as "Meet you there at 9" or "I'll be home late" to a friend can be done in a matter of seconds through whatsapp, viber, etc. With them, we can see if a "buddy" is available or away, talk to multiple people at a time, "wink" and "sigh" using emoticons and emojis, ignore a message if we don't feel like talking, and send links to our favorite Web articles and videos. We are no longer bound to long-distance charges, either. Many folks have already kicked their landline phones to the curb and replaced them with Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and mobile phones. We can place free video calls (yes, we can see the person we're talking to) to anyone in the world over the Internet by using Skype. Mobile phones have become indsipensable, letting us place calls no matter where we are—on the way to work, at the beach, at school, etc. 

However, although technology has saved us a lot of trouble with the ease of communication. It is also true that technology has also made society somewhat impersonal. At the workplace we communicate with each other mostly through e-mail and instant message. As a result, it's difficult to tell when a person is serious or sarcastic— and phrases can easily be misconstrued. Also, technology tends to make communication drag out more than it has to; sometimes it's quicker to just get out of your seat and walk to the person. Even worse, younger generations have forgotten how to spell and write complete sentences due to the increased use of instant messaging on smart phones like the Apple iPhone. The State Examination Commission out of Dublin, Ireland said in a report that in many cases, teenagers seemed "unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses, and a limited vocabulary" and that with the use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, it's beginning to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing, not to mention oral communication. In addition, we've seen how addicted people can become to their smart phones. People possess an obsessive need to constantly check snapchat, facebook, twitter or even their e-mail, even when on vacation with the family. It's as if we're afraid we'll miss something important or be out of the loop, while we are missing out on connecting with the people right beside us. I think it’s important that we deliberately remain personal as humans and not allow these gadgets turn us into robots.

References
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/technology-communicate-27322.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2332339,00.asp
http://www.articlesnatch.com/blog/The-Way-People-Communicate-Has-Changed-Over-Time/366197#gsc.tab=0
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/sports/2010/april/Myth-of-Pheidippides-and-the-Marathon.html