COMMUNICATION FROM THE 1750'S – PRESENT
Communication from the 1750's – present
Introduction
Communication constitutes the use of messages that are sent across various contexts, media and cultures for the sake of generating meaning. Communication has been evolving over the years and it seems to be getting easier to communicate and get the meaning in communication. Communication is the basic method in which needs and aspirations that the humans have can be connected, understood and dealt with as time goes. This therefore means that communication lives with the human race.
The importance of communication is what makes relevant and the need for communication is what inspires inspiration into more indulgence. It means that for the communication methods and relevance to grow, there is need to innovate ways to communicate a message. There are factors that used to hinder communication in the past and as technology, socialism, economics and even civilization grows. The methods of communication grow and expand to cover more scopes. The factors depend on the security, the urgency, the volume and even the mode of communication.
The message to be send, the medium and the urgency of information determined the kind of communication channel or medium to be used. This is why the information age has been on the rise ever since language was discovered. It also means that there is more to communication than just sending messages and waiting for replies. Communication entails the message, the medium in which the message is transmitted, the meaning of the message and even the ability to get results or meaning from the message.
This shows that communication carries more weight if the message sent is understood and the message replied is also understood. It also means that the message should arrive in optimum time and that its security should not be compromised. This way the purpose of communication is achieved. Therefor for communication to be effective, the message send should be meaningful, timely and secure.
History of Communication
In the 1970’s the use of letters for communication was a dominant activity. It was perfected by the presence of art and the need to read as well as to write. It is the reason that letter writing activities grew. It was an act practiced by the high and noble people of the society who were mostly rulers. They could afford the technology involved and therefore using it came with the privilege of being rich.
Communication has been evolving as more technology is discovered. It means that the journey of communication has gone through a history of connections to reach where it currently is. There have been the use of smoke signals, carrier pigeons, Telegraphs, Landlines, dial up internet and short message services (SMS) and Facebook. These have been the most relevant types of communication setups and they have faced a number of improvements, challenges and even some have been phase.
Smoke signals
This is a form of visual communication which is group with signals of light and even sign language. Smoke signals are one of the oldest means of communication characterized by the relevance. They are one of the oldest means of communication and because of this, they are marked as one of those methods that helped in the evolution of communication. This means that the use of signals had been improvised to send messages to distant places where other sign language would not be understood. They covered long distances because of the ability to be seen from a distance.
Carrier pigeons
Involved the writing of messages and tying them on the legs of the pigeons or even under the wings. This was to avoid the message from distortion or being thrown away by weather factors. The pigeon carriers were important and their relevance were seen during World War I and World War II. They participated in communication between the command base and other commanders in the field. An example of an important communication activity with the pigeons is the time when the lives of more than 1000 British soldiers were saved.
The pigeons were also preferred at this time because of the flexibility they provided. They were faster and tended to take the message to the direct recipient. They also had some disadvantages which triggered humans to use other means of communication. The pigeons could get killed by enemy fire, the weather also hindered the birds from flying in particular seasons and therefore it meant that communication had to stop and wait for the appropriate season.
Telegraphs
This is a communication method that was prevalent in 1840s. It involved the transmission of electrical signals carrying messages to another location. It also involved the translation of messages at the receiving end. This means that the sending of messages electronically was a new concept that needed decoding in order to translate the message into a more meaningful form. The telegraphs were the pointers to today’s telephones. It is also noted that Morse was the first human to send a telegraph message in 1844.
Landlines
These communication technology came into relevance and use in the 1950s. The limitation was that only a single person was to make a call at a time. It involved the establishment of a landline service provider and instalment of cable lines to connect homesteads to the telephone services.
Dial up internet
Internet was another important form of communication that came in the 1980s. It was an important form of communication and was adopted by the military. Internet is nowadays used for communication, access and storage of information. Dial up means that the user had to prompt the connection by setting up and dialing a set of codes in order to get connected.
Short message services (SMS)
Short message service is a communication service that came with the evolution of mobile phones. Before SMS, there was the use of Instant Messages and email on computers. They determined the communication because of the relevance of time. The problem with emails is that they are not as flexible as mobile phone SMS due to the tendency of the recipient delaying to read the message. SMS is an instant service since it links one mobile communication device to the other which are portable and have an alert service for the same. The first text message was sent in 1992. This has set the trend where communication by SMS has come from being a wonder to a necessity in the modern world.
Social Media like Facebook
Social media has revitalized the communication practice in life. It has brought about communication from an expensive corporate package to a basic social need. Communication on social media is instant and more so it is cheap. This is because of the prevalence of internet which houses all the basics of communication that spans the exchange of pictures, voice and text messages.
The relevance of communication in the 18th century was to help people, coordination in war and even to rule lands. Warning for possible dangers especially in war was an enhanced practice that required the use of communication to ensure that the dangers were averted. The use of carrier pigeons was important in the moments of war. It helped the rival side to communicate to their allies by use of birds sent to drop written messages at dedicated places.
Communication brought about the relevance of canal, the turnpike, railroad, steamboat, telegraph, submarine cable, automobile, telephone, airplane, wireless telegraph and radio. These means of communication were brought about by the need to communicate in a faster, non-strenuous way. It means that the various modes were progressed so as to beat the strain put on time and make communication quicker. There was also a strain on the messengers who had to travel around with the information in order to reach its destination.
Another factor that triggered the need to evolve faster and more reliable means of communication was unreliability in the old school methods of communication. Smoke messages could not be made at night because of visibility problems. This meant that no matter the urgency, there was need to communicate through these means only during the day. Smoke could also be hindered by the weather which means that in the case where the weather did not allow, then there was a problem in communication.
Different communication methods signified a different message. This meant that deciphering of messages was an art. The art required lessons and therefore without proper lessons the message would not be understood or rather could have been misinterpreted. This means that the development of language has also contributed to the evolvement of communication to the extent of aiding in innovation of more predefined communication habits.
Communication was bound to traditions as far as the mid eighteenth century was concerned. This is because the different stakeholders of communication used varied means to communicate but the means were confined to what their traditions allowed them. The confinement on tradition therefore hindered the expansion of communication ideas but still helped the individuals to communicate and on a more logical sense evolve the art of communication.
Conclusion
Communication has been evolving ever since the ages of smoke signals and telegraphs. It is important that it has gone through all these phases. It is apparent that communication has been improved based on the previous methods of communication but the basics still remain. The essence of communication is to pass the message and therefore the components have to be evolved to enable the transmission and translation of messages.
Communication has been and has also helped to shape the economy of the world, social lives of the people as well as help in averting dangers in the different quests of human survival. Therefore communication is important to life and it should be enhanced and education should be involved in ensuring that the people grasp knowledge on how to communicate and use communication channels.
References
Albion, G. R. 1932. "The "Communication Revolution"." The American Historical Review (Oxford University Press) 37 (4): 718-720. doi:10.2307/1843336.
Headrick, R. D. 2015. 17 - Transportation and Communication, 1750 to the present Volume 7: Production, Destruction and Connection 1750-Present, Part 2: Shared Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press. http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781316182789&cid=CBO9781316182789A031.
NCA. 2016. What is Communication. Accessed March 29, 2016. https://www.natcom.org/discipline/.
