What's Changed in the World. Part 2 - Communication

I think that it's in communications that the greatest changes have occurred in the past few decades.

Of course the computer has been a transforming invention. Once upon a time, computers were very large and only businesses, government, and scientific research establishments were able to have them.

Then, in the early 1980s we began to see small home computers. Then Apple, with its computers that had a graphical user interface, and then later MicroSoft's Windows, began to make computers sufficiently user-friendly that everyone could learn to use one. Now many universities require incoming students to have a computer, and even high school students consider having a computer to be necessary for doing their homework. As of 2010, it is estimated that there is nearly one computer for every resident of the United States and Canada.*

Computers and the Internet have changed so much of our lives: how we date, how we shop, and much more. Interpersonal relations have been transformed by computers, in particular by the Internet and "social networking" web sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Cell phones, which rely on what is essentially computer technology, have also transformed our lives. I just read that many young people have never used a phone with a cord ("except at my grandparents'"). And who writes letters nowadays? Anything written and mailed is scorned as "snail mail" and ridiculously slow and old-fashioned—all this to the detriment of the post office, which has seen mail volume drop because of the use of email, not to mention the FAX machine--which now has been around for more than 30 years and thus is not thought of as an innovation anymore.

We have new ways of spending our time: using social networking sites, sending and reading email, texting, and so forth. And, as I wrote in an earlier post, so many of us now seem very committed to doing one or more of these activities at the same time as something else: for example, talking on the cell phone while driving, shopping, etc.

The cell phone looks like one of those cases where fact has caught up with science fiction. Anyone old enough to remember the comic strip Dick Tracy might remember that Dick had a "two-way wrist radio" (and then, later, a "two-way wrist TV"). Then the "Star Trek" characters on TV had their "communicators." These fictional wireless communication devices now look like nothing but anticipations of the cell phone.

In an emergency, you no longer have to (as in a scene from an old movie) knock on the door of some strangers when you are stuck on a stormy night. You no longer have to look for a phone booth. You no longer have to ask anyone to use the phone in their home or place of business. Pay phones are disappearing, being removed from public places. They are going the way of the buggy whip.

Think of how the cell phone has transformed our lives. No one is ever out of touch anymore—with their bosses, their families, their friends. (I personally think that being unreachable has its good points; and I guess that someone who wanted to be out of touch could be: we can always shut those cell phones off. But I doubt that very many people do.)

And, I could go on about the "smart phone," and all the marvelous things that has made possible. But I don't own one so maybe I'm not aware of the most important and transformative things that they have made possible.

With the spread of wireless phones, many individuals and families no longer have a phone with a cord. And, does anybody remember telegrams? They were used to sending messages of congratulations when I was a kid, but earlier they were a primary method of communication. They were probably particularly useful for overseas communications because international phone calls were very, very expensive. Telegrams were not fast, by today's standards, but they were faster than what we now call "snail mail" letters. Now gone and mostly forgotten. Western Union, the telegraph and telegram company, survived into more recent times by "wiring" money.

* http://www.technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=9967

Note added 8/30: With so many amazing apps for the smart phone appearing daily, I think this is going to be a truly transformative technology.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein