What made the difference?

Origin and Evolution of the Means of Social Communication 


What made it possible?


In my opinion, we have to take in account every moment of the evolution of communication because I don't think that one evolution would be possible of the previous hadn't occured. For example, would it be enough to have printing systems if writing wasn't invented? I suppose not, at least not in what larger content is concerned. Looking back, i don't think we could dismiss any of the eras, nor any of the techniques or machinery that allowed us to get where we are today, in instant contact with every "courner" of the world.
Nevertheless, if I had to choose one specific moment in all this proccess that I consider to have changed our lives, I must go back to the Phoenicians, that invented the writing, and thank the Greeks for improving it. Without this moment in time, I couldn't be expressing myself here if I didn't have a common symbol language with other people, regardeless of all radio signals, Internet coverage or telephone cables in the world. There wouldn't be any common way between us all to express ourselves. 
Shure there are many different languages that suppose many different writings, but it's possible to learn them and know them because someone firstly set the rules, patterns and whatever composes our writing. So this is the moment I choose as the most important. But I must repeat that I don't think writing alone would be enough.
In a sort of a conclusion, we all have to appreciate Gutenberg's printing press, the abolishment in 1695 of the Licensing Act (censorship), Samuel Morse's telegraph and code, James Clerk's theoretical studies focused on radio waves, Marconi's antena (that allowed radio signal circulation), and so on. But let's think about what meant the end of time and space barriers that the invention of writing made possible.

Cristina Freitas


(Este texto foi elaborado por mim no âmbito de um trabalho proposto, na cadeira "Origin and Evolution of the Means of Social Communication", que pretende a eleição de um momento importante na evolução dos meios de comunicação)