Did you know that people actually conducted marriages via the telegraph back in the middle to late 1800’s, or that telegraph operators developed relationships over the telegraph that ended in marriage?  Sound a bit familiar?  We all know someone who began a relationship over the internet.  At first this whole relationship over the web sounded a bit crazy and new, but it’s not new at all!  And this isn’t the only example of where the evolution of the telegraph parallels the evolution of the internet.  At the start, governments were the first users of the telegraph, then came the public – including the scammers and lovers.  Again, sound familiar?

The evolution of mass communication really seemed to begin with the telegraph.  It allowed information to be transferred from city to city within minutes, versus the hours it took the pony express. From there we’ve never looked back.  To learn more about this, check out the book “The Victorian Internet” by Tom Standage. Think about the telegraph as the precursor to the keyboard next time you log on - thank heavens we’ve moved beyond dots and dashes!

Tiffany Thomas

Tags: internet, mass communication, Web / Internet