Communication Evolution

Over the years how we communicate with each other has changed. For centuries the norm was pen, paper and postage. If you wanted someone to know about your new baby boy, the loss of a mother or even just to say “Hi; I was thinking of you.” You had to write your thoughts down on paper and then send it off in hopes that whether the recipient was the next town over or in Timbuktu, they would receive this correspondence in a timely manner let alone at all. Maybe the ship would wreck or the pony would lose a shoe. And then when they did read about the changes in your life, your life could have changed ten times over from the send date.

Then came along the phone, and all the sudden the world was a little smaller. With the lift of a receiver, some copper wire and the knowledge of a numerical address; you could talk to anyone. ” Hi, did you hear what happened to …” “Her name is Beth and she is 5 pounds…” You could now use your voice to describe and tell the tale. People could know about the events in your life quicker than most could have ever dreamed.

For some it may seem like a long time ago, but up until the end of the nineties these where the popular forms of communicating. With my parents being half a world away, I would either have to spend a small fortune on a thirty minute call about how my last week went. Or mail off a letter that could take sometimes a month to get there. Then there was a shift in the way we connect. The internet took off. Readily available to most. Now with the click of a button and after listening to screeches, ping and beeps; I could type out a quick note, hit send, and anyone with a email address would read the words I forgot to send through the spell checker. The world was once again growing smaller and easier to circum-communicate.

Now days within seconds people can know how I feel, what I had for dinner or how my day at work is going. We text, chat, email, call, video conference, tweet and status update; all from a multitude of devices. Our social worth can be graded by how many followers we have and the amount of people we have friended. But do you really know them? Out of your 500 followers, how many do you actually know? How many have you even met in person? How many feel that the more connected we are, the more disconnected we become.