Communication Technology

       

       Communication has evolved so much throughout history. We often take for granted the immediacy we have when we send a text or make a phone call. Before the age of technology, there were different ways to communicate directly to one another.
       One of the first ways was the petrograph. It is basically inscriptions on solid surfaces, typically rocks or boulders, to communicate a message between one another. These messages were often delivered in hieroglyphic-like languages and were specific to certain regions. This was developed during the Neolithic age, many years before the development of cities or modern forms of government. It is interesting to see how much this has withstood the test of time. Though petrography is not commonly practiced in a modern society, there are still remnants of it that still exist.
      Another popular mode of communication that is now outdated is the messenger pigeon. Unlike the petrograph, this way of communicated completely died out. Using the messenger pigeon was popular as early as 1150. The carrier pigeons were trained to return back to their original location after they would deliver messages. Sometimes, this mode of communication was effective enough. In that time, it was the quickest way to send a message between two parties. However, there were major faults in this mode of communication. One was that the pigeons would often be killed off by hunters. Hunters would see something flying in the sky and just shoot at it, hoping to score something they could eat. Messages would often get lost or not delivered because of this. Another reason it wasn't effective was the prey nature of pigeons. Hawks would often get to the pigeons before they could deliver the messages. There were also many health issues that emerged in the pigeons because the messages would be tied around their foot too tightly. Considering all of these defaults, the carrier pigeon method of communication is no longer used.
      Jumping ahead many years, we now have iPhones. These were developed by Apple in 2007. They started as one of the first, if not the first, smart phone to hit the market. The phone housed many different functions. It could make phone calls and send text messages like a typical cell phone. It also had access to the internet, which was not a novelty to the iPhone, but it definitely changed the way we used the internet. The development of the iPhone led to competitors attempting to make their own version of it to keep up with the powerhouse of a company that is Apple. Eventually, Samsung would come out with the Galaxy, Google would come out with the Pixel, Androids were developed. Now, though iPhones remain to be the most popular smart phone to be sold, there is an ongoing debate if iPhones or Androids are better. My opinion: iPhones, but I may be a little bias.

Reference: in-class presentations