From the most primal drawing to the sophisticated technology we are using today, communication has completely changed the landscape of human history as it changed in form.
The Evolution of Communication from Cavemen to Netizens
Cave Paintings
Theorists say cave paintings were used to record events and mark territories. The oldest cave painting, dated to 30,000 B.C., was found in Chauvet Cave in France.
Symbols
With the ability to draw, our ancestors found it was easier to communicate by drawing symbols on cave walls, tree trunks, or on the ground. From petroglyphs to hieroglyphs to characters, communication was made easier just by looking at the different symbols and images.
Smoke Signals
On top of drawings and symbols, people also utilized different elements to help get a message across great distances. Chinese guards used smoke by setting a huge fire to send a message to other guards along the Great Wall of China. The Greek historian Polybius developed smoke signals in 150 B.C. that represented the alphabet.
Carrier Pigeons
Over 2,000 years ago, the Romans decided to take advantage of pigeons’ natural sense of direction and utilized them to send “long-distance” messages to help their military campaign.
Postal System
Throughout history, there have been bits and pieces of rough representation of the modern postal system we know today. Ancient civilizations used couriers to send messages to both near and faraway places.
Newspaper
The invention of the printing press radically changed communication and gave birth to mass communication as we know it today. What was initially made to be a mass-produced printed bulletin board for small communities eventually became the main source of current events for decades.
Radio
Scientists study and discovery of electromagnetism and radio waves gave birth to the radio. From Maxwell and Hughes’s study on telegraphy to Hertz’s discovery of the radio waves to Tesla’s transmission of content using wireless power, radio has gone a long way.
Telegraph
The man responsible for inventing the Morse Code was the same person who invented the telegraph. Samuel Morse integrated Morse Code with telegraphy technology and revolutionized long-distance communication at the time.
Telephone
Invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1873, the telephone has paved the way for individuals to talk to each other across great distances in real-time. It was the technology that became the foundation of all modern communications tech.
Television
While it is an indirect form of communication, television is one of the most important communication devices of our time. It is where we get news updates and entertainment.
Internet
The invention of the internet has completely changed the world — not just with how we communicate but with how we live as well. It has made the world a lot smaller, enabling people from different parts of the globe to interact in real-time.
From the computer-to-computer communication to the providers we have today, like Lingo Communications, the internet has become a blessing to mankind, communication-wise.
Chats and Email
The internet brought about new communication innovations in the form of chats and emails. Chats allowed us to send and receive written messages and other data to people from different countries. Email messages pretty much became a digital form of the postal system.
Text Messaging
On December 3, 1992, the very first text message was sent from a computer through a Vodafone network. The year 1994 saw the first network provider that enabled the person-to-person messaging that we know and fully utilize now.
Social Media
The latest communication method that technology has brought us is the different social media platforms.
Communication has definitely grown by leaps and bounds and still continues to evolve and change the way we interact with each other. It is our responsibility to use all of these technological marvels responsibly.