Communication is the connection between all organisms. We all communicate through different means, and as time has progressed, the way of interaction has evolved. The way we choose to collaborate with each other varies on the user’s abilities and preference. Throughout time, humans have used talking face to face as the primary method of communication. But as technology’s capabilities began to exponentially increase, other means were invented, such as the telegraph, telephone and the Internet. Communication’s increasingly fast technological development has changed how people interact forever.
The electric telegraph was the one of the first inventions used for communication over long distances. It was created in 1837, and was composed of three parts: the key, the battery and the electromagnet. The key consisted of two brass or copper pieces. When they are touching, they complete the circuit, and when they are separated, the circuit is broken. The battery was usually a jar filled with copper sulfate, and when zinc and copper electrodes are immersed in it, an electrical charge is created. The electromagnet consisted of a coil from 50 to several hundred turns of insulated wire wrapped around an iron core, and it tugged on a piece of iron when an electrical current passed through by pushing the key. The message was deciphered depending on the length and frequency of the clicks. This type of electrical connection sent people’s messages almost instantly, something letters couldn’t do. The telegraph was significant because it started connecting people over long distances. It paved the way for inventors to keep improving methods of transmitting information through the power of electricity.
Only about forty years after the telegraph’s invention, the telephone was invented. Alexander Graham Bell was in search of fixing the telegraph’s biggest problem; only one message at a time could be sent. In 1876, the telephone was birthed with the new idea that multiple messages could be transmitted through speech. The telephone had two main parts, the transmitter and the receiver. The transmitter lies behind the mouthpiece of the phone, and when someone speaks into it, the sound waves strike it. The receiver consists of a metal piece called the diaphragm and two magnets behind the earpiece. One of them is a permanent magnet that constantly holds the diaphragm close to it, and the other one is an electromagnet that consists of a piece of iron with a coil of wire wound around it. When an electric current passes through the coil, the iron core becomes magnetized and it pulls the diaphragm away from the permanent magnet, and the results are sound waves. This way, instead of Morse code, the new technology allowed people to still talk to each other, even when they were far away. The phone consisted of a set of numbers, 0-9, that were used to call someone with a designated telephone number. With the speed of a telegraph, and the ability to hear one’s voice, the telephone was a sensation.
The most recent and popular way of communication is through the Internet. Home computers were introduced in the late 1970’s, and the World Wide Web boomed in the 1990’s. The Internet connects all computers that are hooked up to the network. Messages and information are delivered through electrical currents that travel through the grid to the receiving end. Throughout it’s development, the Internet has gained new ways for people to catch up. For example, social networks, e-mail, instant messaging, Skype are all innovative and different methods of conversing online. The Internet has nearly emulated talking with someone face to face, and people no longer need to leave their house to work or “hang out.” Now that phones and the majority of technology we own are linked through the Internet, we are always plugged in; it has become the primary source for communication over telephones and in person encounters. The Internet has drawn people together that would never have met otherwise, and created a new form of interaction among them.
Throughout history, technology’s means of communication have developed into a new way of being joined together. As it has progressed, the forms of communication have slowly drawn more people closer and simplified interactions over long distances.
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