There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.
Beatrix Potter
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| Tin Phones |
When home telephones were the luxury of a few fortunate owners--quite popular and respected in the neighborhood--kids used to play with a more economic and democratic device: a "telephone" made up of two empty tins connected by a long string. You spoke to one empty tin while your playmate listened to you with one ear on the other empty tin and then spoke back to you...
that was communication!
From the cave man onwards, communication has always been used as a means to highlight his presence on earth, to survive, to transfer acquired knowledge, to create links with future generations... Proof of this is the presence of petroglyphs, prehistoric paintings in caves, graphs carved on stone... In time, writing became a usual form of communication.
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| Chinese Manuscript |
Chinese writing probably started as far back as 1500 BCE and is perhaps one of the oldest means of communication. The Latin alphabet was created about 600 BC. Writing manuscrips in ink became then a common practice. At first, manuscripts were handwritten and replicated by uneducated people who could not read what they wrote, thus information and secrets were conveniently kept for the priviledged, educated people.
A long time passed until Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1438-1468) changed the primitive printing techniques to a breakthrough that persisted in time: he invented a movable type printing machine that permitted to reproduce a significant number of issues. He could not get funds to continue his project and passed away without living the splendor of his revolutionary device, but he certainly foresaw its importance and, most likely, figured out a world with books molding an illustrated man.
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| First Mobile |
Printed material in the form of letters and books has provided man a powerful source of communication and learning that has been essential in his progress and has added modernity to older, less sophisticated ways of communication, such as the manuscripts used by our ancestors to transfer knowledge; the messenger pidgeons, aka homing pidgeons, used as mail carriers; the smoke signals used by castaways and indians; the Morse code used to ask for help mainly in war; ...
In the last decades, technological advances have significantly changed the way we communicate and transfer knowledge to one another with inventions such as mobiles (especially smartphones) and computers. We started by sending e-mails and we are now reading electronic books, downloading scientific papers, creating webpages and websites, writing blogs, twitting, using facebook...
J. Gutenberg would probably be in
a state of despair observing this chaotic, yet organized, way of communication...
magical (not mechanical)
machines delivering printed documents in
seconds... "
e-mails" disappearing from the screen of a strange box and sent to people in other countries...friends in front of the box
chatting and
shopping... guys reading their
facebook...
However, using internet and its applications is currently a necessity, an opportunity and a pleasure. I confess that via blogging I have enjoyed both writing the posts and reading yours. Blogging is a public, yet personal way of expressing yourself, allowing you to have a glimpse into my world and allowing me to share part of yours. I hope you have enjoyed this blogging activity as much as I have so that it continues to be useful to improve your writing abilities in English.
Now it's your turn:
What you think about the experience in general
How much you feel your writing skills have developed
What you would like to include in the future
What else you would like to write about
Wordcount: 200
Make comments on 3 of your classmates' posts and the teacher´s post
It's amazing how the way we communicate has evolved!
ReplyDeleteHi Megumi,
DeleteAnd in such a short time...
See you,
The internet has helped a lot to the communication between us. But even more to whose are far from their family or friends and wants to talk to them.
ReplyDeleteHi Catalina,
DeleteIn the past, you could ring up your relatives and friends, but it was quite expensive.
See you,
It's incredible how the internet help us to keep in touch, years ago people have to wait weeks or mounths to recived a letter,but now with the newest technolgies it's so faster because you have to wait just seconds!
ReplyDeleteHi Francia,
DeleteThree decades ago, today's communication was Science fiction...
Lucky us...
See you,
it´s so crazy how the world had their evolution. i think that 10 years ago we never imagined in what we´ll became with the passing of the times! i still remember when i used to play with my best friends with those empty tins when we were child! that was really cool!
ReplyDeleteHi Valentina,
DeleteNice to know you used those tin telephones... Communications is changing at such a high speed....
See you,
is interesting how change our way of communication,i think that each time it become better!
ReplyDeleteHi Paula,
DeleteShall we see the holograms in front of us soon...?
See you,
I always have wanted back to the past and show te people how we can comunicate today, and how that had made that we talk less than that days ironically
ReplyDeleteHi Vicente,
DeleteCan you imagine how the future will be?
See you,
it's amazing how technology advances and also in communication,
ReplyDeletebut it is sad as little by little we are losing the most important communication...the communication when you look in the face of another person and talk to her
Hi Catalina,
DeleteIt's a pity to me too... too much watching the smartphone instead of talking to them in person...
See you,
ReplyDeleteThe bad thing about technology is that we are "connected", but real communication with the people around us has been lost
Hi Ruth,
DeleteI miss real communication too...So keep good friend to talk with them...
See you,
It´s incredible how technology has changed the way we communicate...but it´s never too late to remember that real communication it´s in our hands!! and it´s free.. jajaj
ReplyDeleteHi Haidee,
DeleteYou're right...We communicate one another... the gadgets are simply gadgets....
See you,
I love too much reading in the WWW. The communication has evolved in photos and video posts in the social networks, but always is nice to read any information on the internet like blogs or any written content.
ReplyDeleteHi Ariel,
DeleteIt's nice to surf around the world to get to know new people, cultures, countries...
See you,
I remember in basic school they teach me how to writte a proper letter, I wonder If they still do that in schools
ReplyDeleteHi Belén,
DeleteI hope so, but by using the modern technologies, writing letters should be easier...However, learning to write a proper message is not so easy...
See you,
I would like to thanks for this oportunity. I think read english text is easyest than wright in english. That´s because we have to change the way how make sentences. I´am confortable with spanish and portuguese. They have similar way to make sentences. It wasn´t easy for me. Thanks always for your help.
ReplyDeleteHi Rafael,
ReplyDeleteLearning a language may be fun for some, but it is demanding if you want to use it fluently... and writing skills take time ....
See you,