A Timeline of Communication

The timeline of communication and technology goes back two hundred years. Before the fourth millennium BCE, communication was based on writing and one of the earliest writing systems, cuneiform, was developed in Mesopotamia. (The History of Communications, n.d.). The entire evolution period began in 1914 and still evolves to today, currently in 2022. 

Ancient Times

The Ancient Times had simple communication methods of verbal and written. Man was limited in understanding and putting pieces together, speech originated around 500,000 BCE (Novak, 2019). Once they started to understand, they transitioned into written communication and communicated through symbols and images. The images were cave paintings and the scenes included hunting wild animals or stencils of human hands that evolved into pictograms and ideograms (Novak, 2019).

3500-3000 BCE: Cuneiform

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia (Mark, 2022).  It was created to serve the purpose of alphabetic scripts for all the civilizations to use and communicate through.  Cuneiform allowed a person to be able to read a word-concept and the number of characters used in writing was also reduced from over 1,000 to 600 in order to simplify and clarify the written word (Mark, 2022).  Two pieces of literature that were first written in cuneiform were The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. 

1814: Steam Powered Printing Press Boosts Circulation

The printing press was the first version of the Steam Powered Printing Press, it was invented in the 1300s. Johannes Gutenberg worked on perfecting the printing press in 1450 and evolved the machine to where it produced 3,600 more pages in one day (The History of Communications, n.d.). Allowing more media to be produced to include books and newspapers, therefore decreasing the prices for the printed goods. The machine then evolved and advanced again into the Steam Powered Printing Press in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. “When the Times of London acquired one in 1814, the speedier technology—it could print at least 1,100 pages in an hour—helped boost circulation tenfold in just a few decades” (The History of Communications, n.d.).

1844: Telegraph

The electrical telegraph sent its first message in 1844 in Washington, DC to Baltimore by Samuel Morse. The telegraph allowed messages to be sent faster and easier across long distances (The History of Communications, n.d.). The machine was connected to wires that connected the long distance through cable.  In 1861, the Western Union was fully connected to the East Coast with twelve thousand miles of cable to send messages and in 1929, more than 200 million telegrams were sent from the Western Union (The History of Communications, n.d.). 

1858: Telegraph

Before people relied on nearly 750,000 miles of undersea fiber optic cables to facilitate their internet communication, they used telegraph cables to exchange messages (The History of Communications, n.d.). Before the telegraph, the U.S. Mail System delivered written letters and packages as a primary communication method. Although mail took a long time to deliver and there was no immediate method to send a message. The first transatlantic telegram was sent fourteen years after Samuel Morse sent the first telegram (The History of Communications, n.d.). 

1876: Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and was granted a U.S. patent for the device in 1876, in 1910 5.8 million telephones in the United States (The History of Communications, n.d.). This was the same year of the first television transmission and the telephone went international. In 1927—the same year as the first television transmission—the telephone officially went international, it happened between Evelyn Murray, secretary to the British General Post Office and W. S. Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (The History of Communications, n.d.)

1904: Radio

Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi received a U.S. patent for radio technology in 1904, three years after he claimed to have sent the first transatlantic radio signal (The History of Communications, n.d.). Radio was the first technology that could instantaneously communicate to a mass audience, and it allowed continuous, up-to-date news and entertainment for people regardless of their income or literacy levels (The History of Communications, n.d.). Radio had first broadcasted from a station and eventually were able to be broadcasted mobile. In 2010, an estimated 44,000 radio stations operated around the globe. (The History of Communications, n.d.). Consuming radio also had its own evolution from a boombox to currently being able to listen on a mobile device.

1907: Movies

Around the same time as the radio, another form of mass entertainment also became widely popular: movies in 1907 ((The History of Communications, n.d.). By 1907, just over a decade after the first motion picture was released in France, two million Americans were going to the movies at nearly eight thousand movie theaters nationwide (The History of Communications, n.d.). 

1927: Television

The first television broadcast, in 1928, marked the beginning of a new era of mass consumption of news and entertainment (The History of Communications, n.d.). After World War II, television became popular, by 1960, 90 percent of American homes had a TV (The History of Communications, n.d.). The television went from starting in black and white and have revolutionized to color and being a smart television. Allowing applications to be accessed and now any show or movie can be streamed. Extra accessories are not required anymore to view movies and shows, to include DVD player and VHS player.

1957-62: The Satellite

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite (The History of Communications, n.d.). Satellite technology has been used for a variety of reasons for global communication to include tracking weather, monitoring military movements, GPS systems, streaming television connections, internet connection, and more.  “It was used for the first transatlantic broadcast of live television and entertained an audience of tens of millions. In North America, viewers saw, among other highlights, the Big Ben, the Louvre, and Sicilian fishermen at work; in Europe, viewers were treated to sights of an American baseball game, the Statue of Liberty, and a press conference by President John F. Kennedy” (The History of Communications, n.d.). 

1973: Cell Phones

Earlier the telephone was invented, and landlines were very popular in almost every household and workplace. Allowing people to have access to call instantly, at first through a directory system and then it evolved to current cell phones a century later.  Motorola placed the world’s first call from a cell phone, and it weighed almost three pounds and could be used only for about thirty-five minutes (to its rival AT&T, of course) (The History of Communications, n.d.). Motorola’s first cell phone for sale, based on this prototype, could cost up to $4,000, meaning cell phones were even more of a luxury item then than they are today, when 96 percent of Americans own cell phones. (The History of Communications, n.d.)

1992: SMS

Short Message Service, the first form of text messaging, debuted in 1992 in the United Kingdom with a “Merry Christmas” from a software developer to a Vodafone employee (The History of Communications, n.d.). Eight years later, cell phone service companies started to offer short message services on cell phones in the United States. These services include AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Boost Mobile, and Cricket.  

1998: Google

Google’s official launch in 1998 altered the digital landscape with its ability to search for and identify information on the internet in less than a second—so much so that “google” eventually became a verb in the English language synonymous with “search” (The History of Communications, n.d.). Over the years, the number of searches has increased tremendously and therefore they only continue to improve the search engine. Along with connecting their other products, making them available to consumers when they make an account. They have access to Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube to provide communications, navigation, and entertainment services to billions of people. (The History of Communications, n.d.)

2003-2006: social media

Social media platforms have changed how people communicate through mobile devices. People are now able to connect, share ideas, send images and videos, share updates, and share content across different platforms. Facebook started in 2004 and the rest followed, to include Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok (The History of Communications, n.d.). The development of smart phones allowed social media to be developed. 

2007: Apple iPhones 

Apple had changed the scope of technology and communication as they started to develop products. A couple of their products that changed technology includes the Apple computer, iWatch, iPhone, iPad, and more. Apple released the iPhone, the first mainstream smartphone, in 2007, it revolutionized personal communication by marrying the typical functions of a cell phone (calls and texts) with those of a computer (internet access) (The History of Communications, n.d.).  People will now be able to text, message, and FaceTime from anywhere in the world at any time. 

2020: COVID and Remote Learning/Working

COVID-19 impacted the world and over billions of people, technology and communication was tested to its limits not only in the workplace but at home too. Hospitals, churches, schools, businesses, and more had to learn to adapt to the new environment without having people in-person due to contamination. Therefore, remote learning and working had been most established in order to continue daily life. Although not everyone could complete their jobs remotely, therefore they had to shut down or work in-person. Schools and colleges transitioned to online learning, although one in three children and young people could access the internet at home (The History of Communications, n.d.). Therefore, learning was conducted through zoom and students used iPad, laptops, and iPhone to complete their learning and schoolwork. 

References

The History of Communications. (n.d.). World101 From the Council on Foreign Relations. https://world101.cfr.org/global-era-issues/globalization/two-hundred-years-global-communications

Mark, J. J. (2022, September 15). Cuneiform. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/cuneiform/

Novak, M. C. (2019, April 4). A Brief History of Communication and Innovations that Changed the Game. G2. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://www.g2.com/articles/history-of-communication