Communication Through the Years: Has It Helped Us?

Communication through the years has become a breeze but at what cost? Let’s go back in history and have a look. The earliest form of communication, telling a story we can date back to the ice age in Europe. A time when people marked ivory, bone, and stone patterns to keep track of time. There has been evidence found of cave paintings on walls and ceilings dating back to prehistoric times. Some of the earliest of these paintings in Europe date back to Aurignacian which was some 32,000 years ago. They tell us a story of how life was at that time, of the battles fought, the animals that roamed the earth, the life people lived in order to survive their times. We marvel at their ability to communicate how hard things were for them, their happy times, their sad times, and their fears.

In our search to learn more of history we discovered the next step of communication which is dated back to around 10,000 BC. This form of communication is known to us as petroglyphs, rock carvings or paintings. These markings were made by using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. This form of communication didn’t suddenly happen overnight. It is believed to have taken about 20,000 years for humans to move from cave paintings to petroglyphs. The stories found in these drawings tell of the land, how it was ruled, the way the people worked and lived together, their coming of age, hunting parties in search of food, and war between others who have tried to invade their space, some won and some lost.

Pictograms were the next step in communication. Early written symbols, pictures based on what they signified. Symbols which represented a concept, object, activity, a particular place or event were all communicated by these illustrations left behind for all to see. Their book, their history for us to learn from and hopefully improve on. What is the difference between petroglyphs and pictograms? Petroglyphs simply show an event but pictograms go a bit farther because they tell a story about the event. Almost like turning a page in a book, in chronological order. They told a story and many date back to Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese civilizations. They are an art form, a language used for communication reaching out to us from those who left their stories behind. Perhaps they were hoping we would learn from them.

The next evolution moved us to ideograms, which are graphic symbols that represent an idea. Here is the difference between a pictogram and an ideogram. I know you are all thinking they are all just pictures but no, over the years these images have evolved. A pictogram could only represent something resembling their form. In other words, a pictogram of a circle could represent the sun, but it didn’t show heat, light, day or the Sun God. When ideograms were discovered we could see the difference because they conveyed a more abstract concept. So if there were an ideogram in their story of two sticks it could mean legs but also it could be a verb meaning “to walk.” Interesting to see how they were able to communicate without words and each era left us with a peak at how life was for them in their time.

And so we evolved with the invention of the first writing system. The beginning of the Bronze Age which puts us in the late 4^th millennium BC. The Sumerians developed cuneiform writing which is distinguished by its wedge shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. It began as a system of pictograms and evolved becoming more simplified and abstract as the number of characters grew smaller. By the second century A.D. it was extinct and no one had the knowledge on how to read it until they began to decipher it in the late 19^th century.  

It was about the same time the Egyptians developed hieroglyphics which was a formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. This system combined logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, totaling some 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus wood. This was in the Early Bronze Age around the 32^nd century BC. Egyptian hieroglyphs didn’t just disappear it developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period. During this time the system made use of about 900 distinct signs. The last survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, extending into the 4^th century AD.

And so we evolved by the 16^th century the Phoenicians developed the first alphabet. In 26 AD the Roman Emperor Tiberius rules from the island of Capri using signaling messages as a way of communication. These messages were sent with metal mirrors to reflect off the sun. Paper was invented by Tsai Lun in 105 AD and communication just gets better from there. Each new era discovering new ways to communicate with one another across the land.

The Chinese developed wooden block movable type printing. Johannes Gutenberg finishes a printing press with metal movable type in 1450. Ships signal each other by firing cannons and raising flags. In 1792 the first long distance semaphore telegraph line was established by Claude Chappe and in 1831 Joseph Henry builds the first electric telegraph. We keep pushing forward and evolving in our forms of communication. Improving, or so we believe, with each step of the way.

Inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson giving us the electric telephone, Thomas Edison the phonograph to enjoy music and stories as we listen intently and Almon Strowger patents the direct dial telephone in 1889. Things are moving fast and then we hit the 20^th century with transmitting radio signals, the first radio station which was KDKA based out of Pittsburgh began to broadcast which was followed by the first television signal. From here communication should have become better, easier to understand and, in my opinion, pulled us closer together as we gathered around the television and watched our favorite shows and listened to the news broadcast every night. Life was simple but good. We trusted the news and what we heard to be true.

As a nation the United States was young but growing strong and the battles for equality were brought before us on the news at night as we watched the civil rights movement take hold in the 60’s. For many of us, we had no idea things were different for people of color and there were many white people who stood with them and understood their desire to be treated as equals. After all it was only right since in God’s eyes “All men are created equal.”

Now comes the computer era to the point of everyone now having not only a radio and television in their home but they have a computer. A new way to communicate and with it comes the destruction of mankind, Social Media! People have decided to live their lives around their social media posts. They believe everything and anything they read on the computer thinking after all it’s on the computer so it must be true. However anyone can open a webpage and start typing anything they want to get their propaganda out there and stir the pot which is what has been happening for some time now.

There are many news outlets on the computer as well as mainstream media who are no different than the rag newspapers set out at the checkout counters in grocery stores around the world.  You know the ones that talk about this star or that alien abduction. I have noticed on many posts on Facebook and other social media outlets that there are a lot of fake news outlets writing what they want you to hear because they know there are so many people willing to believe the worst in people before they see the best.

This is what evolving communications has given the people around the world. A form of communication which should have pulled this entire world closer together giving us a better way to communicate with one another has instead instilled fear and hate in so many hearts it has set us back over 50 years.

The United States was never perfect, it was growing, developing, learning from our mistakes, but we were better at communication before social media then we are now. People my age, in their 60’s, for the most part remember the hard times and don’t want to see this country go through that again but the young people who didn’t live through the battles and see the triumphs however small the baby steps were, are out there knocking us back in time instead of fighting to unite us and bring us into a better understanding of how to fix what is broken instead of finding ways to keep it in ruins.

Many of us have allowed people on social media to influence the way we see things. To instill unnecessary anger in our hearts and minds. To let this control our lives and push away our goals, dreams, hopes for a better tomorrow. Here in the United States of America we have a chance to unite as one nation and become stronger and better than we ever were yet we have people behind the scenes fighting to stop that from happening.

Have you ever wondered why? I do, I think to myself of how things were when I was a child, simpler times but still we had our problems and most Americans wanted unity. They wanted to see all people work together for a brighter future. Today these people behind the scenes work towards pushing the people against the government because they don’t like the man elected into office. They don’t like the way things turned out because now socialism and communism is being held at bay and we are fighting hard and holding on to keep our freedoms but social media, our big advancement in communications, is telling us how horrible we are for believing in our way of life. For trusting and giving our new President a chance to pull through on his promises and fix what he can in the next 4 years.

In my eyes, social media is a great way to keep in touch with those you love, family and friends, a way to promote your business or yourself, but it should not be used as a tool to pull this country or the world apart. I will use Facebook as an example since I have had dealings with this issue through friends of mine who have been blocked from Facebook for expressing their political opinion and it not complying with the political belief of those who run Facebook. They will censure someone calling for unity in the United States and for the world to come together in understanding one another so there is no more fighting and destruction but they will not censure someone who posts they are going to kill another person, declare war on cops, or praise ISIS or any other terrorist group.

I’m appalled because in a time when our communication with the world is more opened then ever, we have chosen to be more negative than ever dreamed possible. People pull on the hate and allow it to control their lives and destroy their family. People fight not for what they believe in but for what others tell them to believe in. Social media has become the enemy of the people not the communication enlightenment it should be.

Do yourself and others a favor, before you post anything on this amazing form of communication, verify it, fact check it. You have the ability at your fingertips to pass on the negative or delete it, ignore it, just don’t like it scroll by it and don’t allow it in your feed. You have the power to improve communications and to start pulling this nation and the world together by walking away from the nasty people out there and not feeding into their hate allowing them to stay in the light of your newsfeed or anyone else’s because you keep posting and reposting it.

None of us are innocent in this but we should all be aware the only way we can be proud of the accomplishments of communication, of how far we have come, is to use it for the better good. To use it to help improve what is going on in this world today and not feed the hate.

I have been attacked many times on social media no matter how nice I word something. If it doesn’t fit someone else’s agenda then they will come at you but it’s how you answer them that matters. Many times I just thank them for their opinion and stress it’s the beauty of our freedoms that allows us to be able to speak our mind in the United States. However that usually doesn’t work and they come back at me with even more vengeance at which time I choose not to answer them. I don’t need nor want that in my life so many times they are left in a post arguing with themselves until they give up.

I don’t think these amazing people who have worked so hard to develop communication skills to bring us all closer together ever thought for one second it would pull us apart to the degree of arguing with people they don’t even know. So if you are on social media, think before you post, get the facts straight. If you are only using the computer to read and learn then please fact check as well because not everything on the internet is true.

My goal, my dreams, to see a better tomorrow. To know this world will be stronger for all its struggles and all leaders will set aside their petty differences and realize no one is better than anyone else and in order to make things right we must all come together and unite to build a safer world and stop the terror that has poisoned our society. My wish is for everyone, our leaders included, to start using the internet, social media, as if it were any other tool to bring us all together. To stop the hate and start talking to the people about what matters and how we, as a nation, are going to achieve it.

Watch your children and what they see and hear on the internet. They are very impressionable and can be harmed by many of the things posted here. Still communication is the key to success so I hope and pray everyone starts to use this amazing tool of communication for the betterment of all instead of continuing to use it drive a wedge between us.

May God Bless America and open our lines of communication for the good of all mankind.