The Internet ...

The internet has transformed communications to the extent that it is now the preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything that happens in the world today, we use the internet. The internet itself has been revolutionized, from its early beginning—which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent - a static network designed to transport small freights of bytes or  short messages between two terminals; it was a source of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Presently, enormous amounts of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic giant and the content is owned by approximately three billion people; made up of commentators, publishers and creators.

 In the 1980s and 1990s, the internet widened in scope to encompass the information technological capabilities of universities and research centers, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises all over the world. The internet underwent immense growth and was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The internet removes geographic restraints and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not subject to location. The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming communication practices and possibilities—particularly among younger people. The internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a wide range of communicative possibilities.

The development of the internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. Comprehensive internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: constraints no longer exist to any specific device, and everything can be placed in the cloud, the true essence of a cyber reality.

“Such stuff as dreams are made on” – William Shakespeare

The Paris exposition in 1900 gives birth to the pivotal union between imaginative desires and material ones (Crowley & Heyer 2011). As the evolution of non-materials needs was being fulfilled somewhat by religion and art up to the nineteenth century, the transcendence of imagination into reality through consumerism had not yet completely come of age. The untapped nature of consumerism was emancipated by the flamboyance and ingenuity of the French among others. Notable is the association of all things being magnificent when the French, fashion, art and design are present. By the end of the nineteenth century consumer goods, rather than the usual suspects of culture became obtainable objects of desire (Crowley & Heyer 2011).

During this period of time department stores became palaces of pleasure for the emerging movement of consumerism. The mid to late nineteenth century introduced societal changes. The shopping experience became an interaction of freedom and liberty to indulge in dreams. Department store magnates recognised the opportunity for business practices never implemented before this time. Price fixing replaced a societal expectation of negotiation or bartering. Interchange of communication between retailer and consumerism took the place of a passive or mute response of consumer to things (Crowley & Heyer 2011). The civilising process of consumerism began, and in present day with the aid of technology and the desire for technology – the leap from that point to the obsessions of today’s consumer society, are insurmountable.

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society,6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Religion and Technological Determinism

Religion, specifically the Catholic church in the middle ages has influenced communication considerably. Technological determinism could be posited as an interplay in regards to the motivation platformed by the Catholic church. Due to the domination and monopoly of knowledge and literature, people outside the hierarchy of the Catholic church were excluded from evolving mentally and socially, and kept somewhat suppressed by the powerful knowledge bearing institution. The Catholic church maintained constraints over citizens by writing text in Latin. A complicated language to learn especially if required as a second language to understand verbally or written. By the 12th and 13th century texts were beginning to be produced in the vernacular, liberating minds and instilling a sense of culture and tradition within those societies (Crowley & Heyer 2011, p.64).

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Communication by way of symbols and signs appears to have its origins in stone to which is a stark contrast to today's cyber advancements. From the onset stone was used to communicate; clay tablets 3300BC and cuneiform inscriptions around 3100BC (Crowley & Heyer 2011), but their inefficiency was they could not communicate across space. The message could only be communicated within reading range; requiring recipients to travel to obtain knowledge. Not until papyrus and ink was utilised for scribing upon 3100 – 3300BC, was information transportable. This was marked by the substantial use of government who used this medium to calculate, record and propagate a basis for revenue creation (Innes 2011). 

The horse and rider was the first transporter of information which signalled the exchange of knowledge. In 440BC the Persian courier was a system developed consisting of riders stationed along the road - equal in numbers as a man and a horse for each day. In the 11th century domesticated pigeons became a source of transport of communication - made possible by the Egyptians.

By the second century paper was invented by the Chinese. Around the 800s the Chinese invented printing. Not until the 15^th century is movable type invented in Europe, primarily in Germany. In 1867 the typewriter was invented in America, and then also in America around the 1940s the development of electronic computers.

References

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Innes, H 2011, “Media in ancient empires”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

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Debby Baty
Commenced: March 2015