mcom3190

Ever since humans could communicate we have been trying to find ways to make communication more effective and efficient. Before the telephone or even the telegraph, ideas could only travel as fast as a horse could gallop or a person could run. Because of this, communication was really limited to immediate surroundings or one could wait days for a letter to be hand carried by the postal service. This created a demand for faster means of communicating. According to the text,  “it was the demand for rapid communications that created the telecommunications systems, not the other way around.” From this demand, first came the telegraph, which consisted of a series of wires that eventually covered the continent that words transformed into electrical impulses could travel. These impulses were the dots and dashes of Morse code, which created a slight setback for the everyday users like you and I; every user had to master this complex system of Morse code before they could even get their message across the line. Despite this slight setback, the invention of the telegraph was revolutionary. It allowed for messages to travel at a much faster pace than any person could physically carry it.

A step forward from the telegraph would be the telephone. Invented in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the telephone allowed people to engage in instant two-way communication without needed to know Morse code or even be literate. Today we take this amazing device for granted when we pick up the phone to call someone in another state and as technology advances, we have more access to even quicker ways of communication- like the Internet for example. Now we can send an email instantly to anyone in the world without even disturbing the person on the other end with a ring. I couldn’t imagine what would come next when it comes to faster and more convenient ways of communicating… but I guess for now, only time can tell.