Everything Old is New Again
Rapid communication continues to evolve from 19th century inventor’s dream
A patient waiter is no loser -- Samuel F.B. Morse, 6 January 1838
At first glance, these two messages appear to be totally unrelated. The former is the first telegram transmitted in the United States over a short distance in New Jersey; the latter is the initial urgent posting to a Facebook page created by a 32-year old woman responding to a looming natural disaster in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The 1838 message was an historic moment in the evolution of human communications while the more recent one being a single status update by just one of over 800 million users and groupings residing on the world’s largest social networking website.
Although separated by over 170 years in time and 120 miles in distance, these disparate dispatches are indeed linked through their respective sender’s aspiration for instantaneous communications in pursuit of their personal and altruistic goals.
