This is a very short essay I wrote last year. I am very happy with this as it is the first essay I had written since I was about 15 years old. It is based on some thing that happened when I was about 11 yearsd old.
HOW HAS COMMUNICATION CHANGED?
ADM-C 09 BCFE
I know this may seem an odd question to pose, but when you really think about it, aren’t we all using a tool that prehistoric man used. This tool I talk about is not a stone axe or any kind of physical object. The tool I talk about is our ability to communicate. In fact I would go as far as saying; the biggest step forward in the evolution of mankind, is with out doubt the ability to communicate with each other. Through communication we can express ourselves in so many ways, whether it is through speech or written word. We can convey our emotions through art, theatre, poetry and song. We are able to learn what people were like thousands of years ago, from stone age man with his cave paintings such as the Magdalenian paintings of the Altamira cave in Spain, to the written words that record the fall of the Roman Empire. This is what our culture and belief system is built on, our laws, religions and in fact our sense of self awareness. From the moment we are born into this world, we use communication, and develop this gift through out our lives. Even on our death bed, we communicate our last dying words and after death, our wishes are communicated through our last will and testament.
Communication has come a long way over the millennia. However, with in the last two hundred years or so, we have entered a new era of mass communication. With inventions like the electric telegraph in the 1830s and the telephone that was patented in 1876 by Alexandra Graim Bell. As far back as the 1800s we had instant communications across the world. Places that would normally take weeks or even months to send too, and receive messages from, could be contacted by telegraph with in a few hours. The radio that was developed by Marconi was another evolutionary leap in our ability to communicate with each other. Television that was simultaneously developed by a number of inventors in the 1920s (John Logie Baird being one of them) evolved from radio which in turn evolved from the telegraph which was developed from the Optical telegraph of the 1790s and so on, until we go way back to pre history when early man would have used their own version of modern communications technology. I think we have come a long way from the days when our ancestors would have banged a stick on the ground to get attention, or make a vocal noise that gradually turned into primitive speech With the gift of speech, we had the means to pass on what we know and therefore develop society and culture. Let’s face it, after all these years, we are still developing and this is all down to the fact that we can use communication. And as we develop, so dose the way we communicate They say necessity is the mother of all invention, but to me, the real truth is that it is communication.
In the last twenty years or so, we have made another technological evolutionary leap. Almost all of us, in the western world, have access to unlimited information; by just using a few finger strokes on a computer keyboard. We can find out almost anything and instantly send videos, pictures and emails to anywhere in the world via the internet. Most of us now own our own personal phone that we have with us at all times. Even the phones in our pockets will allow us access to the internet. Things have become very easy for us. It has made the world seem a lot smaller and maybe we have become lazier as well. No more queuing for a half hour at a public phone box, just to make a quick call home. Even writing this essay has become easier. It was not that long ago that a student would have to go to the library and do some research before writing an essay like this. It took me just a few minutes to find out when the electric telegraph was developed, and not only that, but I did it while I was writing this very essay.
I think it is a really hard thing to say whether modern communication is a good or a bad thing. Maybe in a thousand years or so, some one will be reading this essay, and think “how primitive we were. In fact, the speed technology is going at the moment; it could be as little as ten or twenty years. The real challenge to us now, is to use the technology as affectively as possible and keep up with the technological changes. For all we know, this could just be the beginning of another communications technology era. Who knows what changes will come in the next few years? I think the only real negative, is that we are harder to impress and I feel there is a tendency for us to take things for granted more. As a boy I remember my Grandma and Grandpa going to a neighbor’s house so they could receive a phone call from my uncle in Canada. This phone call was arranged a few weeks in advance, as my uncle had to write a letter to let them know. He also had to write to our very good neighbors as they were the only ones that had a phone at the time. Now I can make a phone call to my uncle in Canada while walking down the street or even on a bus. My Grandma and Grandpas phone call was a huge event that we all weighted for with genuine excitement. If I told some one I called Canada now, they would think I had two heads for even mentioning it. It just goes to show how things change so very quickly in just a few years. So much so I didn’t even bother to mention that the phone signal is probably beamed into space and bounced back from a satellite.
Well I guess I will bring this short essay to an end, and hay, I might even call my uncle in Canada, while I’m at it. Yeah I think that would be a very good strategy, because if you look at me like I have two heads after reading this, I can always blame it on my phone call.
