Zoom

Changing the way we communicate impacts what we say and how we say it.

Print

Hand illuminated biblical texts created in the Dark Ages and in Medieval times kept the words of God away from the common people who only had access to biblical verse through the oral readings of the scriptures written on vellum by priests .

The introduction of paper in the 1300s took hand illuminated tomes into the libraries of the landed and wealthy. The printing press did not reach Europe until the 1500s.

Reading

Printing allowed the wealthy and educated commoners to have direct access to the written word, still in Latin. Then communicating in the language of the people moved written information into a much larger group of educated people. And of course non-religious works, such as philosophy, were published. The technology of printing continued to evolve at a steady pace until even the poor could read books, if they could read.

Data

The telgraph began the exponential increase of the speed of sending text.

Reading evolved too, and books of all sorts, even for children, became common. Then we expanded into silent films, then phonographs, radio, and television. The world changed with the nearly instantaneous transmission of images and sounds around the world.

Document Tech Change and Its Impact on Lives

Then came computers and satellites. Now we are using personal transmission of streaming communications, and Covid 19 got us all to Zoom for work and family gatherings.

This is one of the biggest changes in history. People create and share in the moment. This has happened so quickly we have not had time between changes to assess the technology and increased capacity for data exchange.

It is up to us to describe these changes, how they entered our homes, how they changed our relationships, how our elders and grandchildren use the technology. We need all the chroniclers we can can find.

Do you remember phone modems, computers that dialed in and that created screechy tones to connect? Maybe job cards and big computers doing data crunching was your thing. Whatever changes you have experienced and observed is fair game.

If that is over your pay grade, then just write about how Zoom, Face time, or Google meet impacted your life and changed the way you communicate during the pandemic and it ongoing. Only you can chronicle the changes you have seen, how the new technology was introduced into your community, and how it was accepted, and how it spread.