Before the telephone was invented people communicated in many ways. "They sent letters. ... It took forever to deliver one letter. Some used drums to beat out a message. Some used fire to communicate - they sent smoke signals. ... They sent messages from one hilltop to another by raising or lowering a semaphore tower's arms. If it was foggy, no one could see the message. People would put a message into a little container on a carrier pigeon's leg. The bird would fly to the person receiving the message. People would write messages will quill pens and send them by a postal system. Some went by stagecoach. Pony Express riders galloped thousands of miles from one side of the United States to the other (to deliver mail). Lanterns were used to flash out a message in a code called Morse code. Morse code was also sent by wires through the telegraph. You had to be able to read the code to use it." (Summary of Humphrey, 1995)
At first, the telephone was seen as a toy. "People were (also) suspicious of telephones. (The 1800's were) a time when few people had firsthand experience of electrical machines, even telegraphs. There were fears that other people could also listen in on the telephone conversations, or that the sounds from telephones could make you deaf or crazy. ... Even telegraph companies encouraged false rumors that the telephone had bad effects because they were afraid of the competition." (Parker, 1995, p. 21)
When telephones first became available to the public, many people were afraid that other people could listen in on their conversations. This actually did happen on party lines where more than one household shared a line with other households. Also some operators in small communities listened in on conversations because they were nosey or had a lot of time on their hands with nothing else to do. Telephones also allowed people to spread the news quicker, but the news was sometimes just gossip.
http://www.schoelles.com/Telephone/telsocial.htm
The telephone was invented to improve the capabilities of the telegraph. The telegraph allowed people to send messages from one place to another but was limited by the fact that to send and receive messages they had to use Samuel Morse code, which was impractical for transmitting many non-English texts because there were no codes for letters with diacritical marks.
The telephone was invented in the 19th century (1870) and quickly became one of the most important inventions of all time. The telephone exchange changed the world by allowing people to talk directly to each other over long distances. Before the invention of the telephone network, communication between two people required a third party to transmit a message. The telephone bell system simplified this process and allowed for more efficient commerce and social interaction.
The telephone had a tremendous impact on society, including the way people did business and communicated with each other. It took a while for the telephone to become widely used, but today it is one of the most important technological tools in the world. It has revolutionized the way people communicate.
Before the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, it was difficult to maintain long-distance relationships. At that time, the fastest way to communicate with a person who lived far away was to write letters. Letters took a long time to travel across country borders. When a person started a journey, it could take weeks or even months for their partner to receive word of their safe arrival.
The invention of the telephone call made it possible for people in relationships to call each other at any time and speak immediately. They no longer had to wait days or weeks for a letter to arrive.
https://brilliantio.com/how-did-the-telephone-change-the-world/
The Effect the Telephone Had on Literacy and Society
Context
Although there is debate about who actually invented the telephone, it is often credited to Alexander Graham Bell, as he was the first one to patent the telephone in 1876 (Wikipedia, 2013). I believe that few would argue the importance of this invention, and how much it has shaped communication and literacy within society since then.
With the invention of the telephone, society has moved to a state of ‘secondary orality’ (Ong, 1982). Much like primary orality, it creates a sense of community and bringing people into the moment (Ong, 1982). Speech by design is used to share ideas and thoughts with others, so this secondary orality is designed to bring us closer, and create a more communal feel. More than that, it has also helped to shape the language we use and how we communicate with each other.
Communal Experience
The word telephone is derived from Greek and means “far off voice” (Free Dictionary, 2013). By its very etymology, the telephone is a device to connect us with someone who is at a great distance to us. The very design of the device and the word is to bring groups of people together.
When the telephone was first invented, there were operators who ran the switchboard. This means that if you wanted to talk to another individual, you also had to talk to the operator first. Previously you would send a letter to someone, and talk to no one. Now, you had the ability to talk to someone on the other side of the country, and rather than just talk to one person, you would talk to two. This ability, and this forced conversation, would create an increased sense of community, as you could now discuss everyday occurrences on the very day, rather than write a letter and wait for a week for the letter to arrive, and wait for a response.
Another example of how the telephone increased a sense of community is the party line. When the telephone was first invented, it was very expensive to set up phone lines to every single residence. To save money, they would have a party line, where several houses would share the same phone line between them, and operators would need to distinguish between whom the phone call was for by using distinct rings for all houses on the line. There were privacy issues with this setup. If someone was on the phone, and another house picked up, you could listen to the conversation. This could be a significant issue if having a conversation about a sensitive topic.
It could also create a communal feel since anything one person said could be overheard by another. This would cause individuals to be careful about what they said, or it would be possible to have group conversations. It would also involve people working together as a community, since if one person was on the phone for an extended period of time, it would tie up the line so other people could not use it.
Literacy Effects of the Telephone
Written works tend to create a more self-reflective piece over oral conversations (Ong, 1982). Writing would often strengthen intrapersonal skills rather than interpersonal skills. The telephone is beginning to swing the pendulum back towards a more oral society, and less focus on the written word.
With the invention of the telephone comes a flip back to what we had seen previously; a stronger communal feel to society. Writing allowed us a place to store our thoughts and ideas which we could share with others if we chose to. Verbal communication only works if someone is talking, and another person is listening. Orality is by its very nature a way of sharing your thoughts with others, whereas writing allows the option between sharing your ideas and storing them for your own personal use. Orality stresses group learning, cooperation, and a sense of social responsibility (Postman, 1992).
I believe that second orality has greatly changed literacy in individuals. Originally people started as an oral society, and as technology increased, people moved towards a more literary society. As the switch comes back to second orality, I think people are becoming more casual in their communications and language choices.
When an individual would communicate with another by writing them a letter, there is a record of everything that is being said. When a person is creating a permanent record, there is more thought put into what is being written, since at any point someone can reflect on the words. When oral communication is occurring, there is less caution when discussing events, as once those words have reached the ears of the listener, there is no more record other than memories.
When there is a conversation between two individuals, the language and word choices tend to be more casual than a formal written exchange. The linguistic choices that we make are reflective of the situation. The way we would talk to a friend or family member is different than the way we would talk to a boss or work colleague. As orality has taken greater hold of society, the word choices that we use tend to be more causal, and in turn, also affects the formality of the written words we choose. As our conversations become more casual, so do our written words.
Educational Changes
The educational world changed greatly with the written world. Schools are based on recorded knowledge and learning what has been written in textbooks. With the creation of second orality, the way students learn and relate to each other changes. Rather than simply reading and writing being the focus in education, there is a change in pedagogy for more discussion, and sharing of ideas.
No longer did an individual need to be able to read and write in order to get information. If someone needed to know a piece of information, they could now pick up a phone to get that information. If someone wanted to know what the weather was, there was a phone number they could call to find out. Educational systems needed to adapt how they taught to meet the new technology.
The written word did not die out in the school system. There was still significant emphasis put on reading and writing, but teachers recognized that society was becoming more oral, and I believe used school as a way to keep some formality in language. There were still textbooks used in school, and still written reports that needed to be handed in. These were the more formal methods of evaluation over a presentation. This is why often the written word is still more formal than a casual conversation, even if written works are still more casual than previously.
Changes in Society
In the past when ideas were shared between individuals, if there was a distance between them, it would take a significant amount of time to correspond. Now there was a more efficient way to share ideas and collaborate. Working with another individual became far easier, and allowed for newer ideas and inventions to be created.
With second orality, the thought process of the individual also has become more self-reflective (Ong, 1982). Because people spent so much time where the written word was so important, people will often think more before they speak. We are reflective in the words that we say, and in the reasons we do things. If I were to pick up the phone to call someone to surprise them, it would be more a reflection of the fact that I know surprising people is a good thing, and I should do it, rather than I just picked up the phone to surprise someone (Ong, 1982).
With this self-reflection, one would think that our speech patterns would still reflect the formality of the written word, rather than become more casual. Rather, the self-reflective nature holds us to societal norms. As previously mentioned, the second orality has brought us together as a community, and the self-reflective nature prevents us from saying things that would hurt another member. Technology, and in this case the telephone, “changes social and individual relationships” (Franklin, 1999, pg 2). That is, the telephone has changed the language that we use, and created stronger relationships with each other. The fact that we are more conscious of the words we choose, and are able to keep in communication with more ease, has changed how people interact with each other.
The invention of the telephone also meant that people could share events at a quicker rate. Rather than waiting for news to be shared by a newspaper, or a written letter, news could be shared almost instantaneously. This would depend on people picking up the phone and sharing information, but I believe has led to the fast paced world that we live in today. Slowly as society got used to this new speed to which they can obtain information, they became more used to being able to get information at the touch of a few buttons, and expected the rest of their lives to start to reflect this, leading to new and improved inventions to make their lives easier and quicker.
The continual choice for people to use the telephone also says something about the change in how society communicates. As Kress discusses, when there are multiple choices in how you can share information, the choices that you make in how you share the information say something about the person making the decision, the person receiving the information, and the information itself (Kress, 2004). The fact that the telephone started growing so rapidly in popularity tells me that society was valuing the written word less, and ready to move towards a more communal feel and rapid information attainment.
This pattern does not always hold true. As time progresses on, we continue to become more casual in our language usage with each other, and I feel we also become less self-reflective. That progression leads us to the time that computers were invented and I feel we started to move back towards a written society, albeit a more casual written society than last time. I believe that the informality that we start to see with the telephone, led up to the invention of a written device that does allow for more informal dialogue to occur.
Conclusion
I believe that the invention of the telephone and the move to second orality has been an important part of literacy in society. The telephone has greatly changed not only how individuals communicate with each other, but the words and the language we use. It has created a more informal way of conversing, but also created opportunity for more conversation to occur. With the new ease of communication, it encourages us to talk more to each other, bringing us together as a global community.
The invention of the telephone has also changed how society looks at
themselves, each other, and the world. Although much of our conversation is
more informal, it is more self-reflective and considerate than our primary
orality. It has also made us view each other in a more positive light as we
brought together with the ability to communicate quickly and over vast
distances with each other. And globally, it has changed our expectations of
receiving information at a quicker pace. This need for instant gratification
is what led to further inventions such as radios, television, and
computers.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept13/2013/10/27/the-effect-the-telephone-had-on-literacy-and-society/
Bell offered to sell his telephone patent to Western Union for $100,000 in 1876, when he was struggling with the business. An account that is believed by some to be apocryphal, but still recounted in many telephone histories states that the committee appointed to investigate the offer filed the following report:
“We do not see that this device will be ever capable of sending recognizable speech over a distance of several miles. Messer Hubbard and Bell want to install one of their ‘telephone devices’ in every city. The idea is idiotic on the face of it. Furthermore, why would any person want to use this ungainly and impractical device when he can send a messenger to the telegraph office and have a clear written message sent to any large city in the United States? … Mr. G.G. Hubbard’s fanciful predictions, while they sound rosy, are based on wild-eyed imagination and lack of understanding of the technical and economic facts of the situation, and a posture of ignoring the obvious limitations of his device, which is hardly more than a toy … This device is inherently of no use to us. We do not recommend its purchase.”
https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/time-capsule/150-years/back-1870-1940/
Social elements affected by the rise of the telephone: Initially, the telephone was thought to be most suited for industry, but people soon thought of using the telephone for personal communication. With the rise of industrialization, there was a need for improvements in communication technology in order to achieve a more efficient running of industry.
The telephone [had] an insignificant impact in both homes and offices. As the telephone facilitated the exchange of ideas, based on private matters, at the same time this telephone facilitated the process of industrialization by making it possible to run huge corporations more efficiently. With the telephone, efficient internal communication became possible within large corporations where employees were spread over various distant lands. The telephone served such corporations as an organizer because it provided an opportunity not only for the exchange of information but also for modern structures, such as movie studios, manufacturers, suppliers, and the stock market, to develop.
With corporations flourishing and expanding, it is clear to see how factories soon multiplied within society. Just as it is always the case in life when a particular trend gains momentum, the increase in the number of factories caused society to progress towards greater industrialization and to move away from agriculture.
More so, the telephone brought about a political revolution. The great European powers of Britain, Holland, and Germany, among others, ruled overseas colonies in Africa, Asia, South America, and elsewhere, partly because the use of the telephone enabled instant communication around the globe, facilitating communication between leaders in the colonies and their respective leaders in Europe.
Reasons why the telephone was delayed in reaching people’s homes
According to Anon (74), the telephone was initially intended for business activities. The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, strongly emphasized that the telephone was to be used purely for official and more serious purposes, an opinion he was not easily going to abandon. Early users of the telephone, such as businessmen and doctors among others, worked in offices, but the telephone did not reach private homes as quickly. Telephone service was quite costly in that period, a time when most people were low-paid. Only quite rich families possessed a phone in their offices and also in their private homes (Fischer 147).
In summary, initially, the telephone could be seen as a device of communication that could be employed for personal use. It was intended to be installed in the offices for official use. It took time for people to realize that the telephone could as well be used for personal purposes and therefore could be installed even in homes. Furthermore, the telephone was quite expensive and only a few people could afford it and therefore the capacity to have the telephone in the homes was quite limited by the availability of finances. It was at the point where people had to convince the manufacturer of the telephone that it could be as well be used for personal purposes when it started reaching the homes. More so, it was also at the point when the cost of the telephone going down at which the telephone started reaching in most of the homes.
https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-telephone-and-industrialization/
Local Social Life in the Early 1900s
Before the telephone was invented, women could not easily reach out to people beyond immediate vicinity. The telephone development might spurred local activities.
The telephone allowed subscribers, especially women, to maintain social events, for example, ordering food and calling a doctor. Women organized activities easily by telephone more often. According to Lana Rakow’s, professor emerita of communication at the University of North Dakota, women living in rural area set up activities such as church socials and coordinating social club meetings.
Telephone allowed people to make a personal call, helping them to create new social network when they lived in a isolated region. One of the concerns at this time was people might rely on telephones to maintain their relationships instead of face to face communication. A sociologist of technology, Peter Berger, claimed that “the coming of the telephone began the unraveling of social processes. People became willing to accept physical separation as long as contact is not the same as being there, and it creates a different kind of society.”
https://medium.com/@natsuokin/the-telephone-in-history-da07e0108879
