Modern communications, such as computers, mobile telephones, and the internet, are truly amazing. They have changed our lives, but are they the most life changing? They are changing life to an ever-increasing degree. They mean that we can communicate across the world within seconds.
The computer, coupled with the internet, is a powerful tool. We are only just learning how to use them both properly, but in a few short years, we have discovered that they can be used in many ways. They are the ultimate communication tool. People now communicate right around the world. They share information in minutes. In this modern internet world, governments can no longer keep populations in ignorance of ideas, information, and knowledge. Some governments struggle, trying to continue, in the same old way, but they cannot hold back the tide for long. Young people know far more about the internet, than old men, and they find ever more inventive, and resourceful ways to outwit the authorities, in their countries.
The mobile telephone has changed life in many ways, not always for the better. It is a boon in an emergency, to summon the emergency services to the scene of an accident, for example. The mobile telephone can be a comfort and safety device, for example, for women doing jobs where they must travel on lonely roads or in potentially dangerous or volatile situations, such as a female social worker in rural Scotland.
However, people’s skill, at using the mobile telephone, has exceeded their ability to evolve a code of etiquette, for its use. It is also replacing face-to-face communication in young people. One young man argued and made up with his girlfriend by text. Mobile telephones prevent teenagers from learning the social, and persona,l skills that they will need in the adult world. They are not learning about and testing their emotions, as teenagers must if they are to develop properly into healthy adults.
Some people never switch their mobile telephones off. They do not know, what it is to be out of contact with the world. The human being needs quiet time for reflection. In reflecting on problems, opinions, events, or plain day dreaming we recharge our batteries, decide our views or a solution and feed the soul.
The incredible beauty that was Concorde was a life-changing invention. No, not in its operation or, even, that it flew very fast, and one could fly from Britain to America in four and a half hours, but because it made the British proud again. When Concorde flew Britain’s skies, everyone stopped to look at her. The British people felt that they had a personal stake in Concorde; her elegant and distinctive shape pleased the eye and gladdened the British heart.
The mobile telephone and internet, however, could not possibly exist without the telegraph, the first global network. Various inventors claim the telegraph’s invention, but the first practical telegraph was patented by Samuel Morse in 1832. In 1872, The English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company laid a telegraph cable between London and Dublin. Tiny Porthcurno beach in Cornwall, England has the most important cable house connected with the telegraph; 14 international telegraph cables came ashore there and now carry telephone calls. In 1872, several British telegraph companies merged to form the first global telecommunications network, The Eastern Telegraph Company.
There would never have been a Concorde without Wilbur and Orville Wright, who flew the first manned airplane in 1903. The ability to travel by air made the World a smaller place, and meant that, eventually, ordinary people could afford to visit other countries and see other cultures for themselves. It also led to the extra-ordinary beauty that was Concorde.
It is easy to get carried away by the modern inventions, which are changing our lives daily, but we should never forget that they are built on the work of inventors long ago. These pioneers had no reference points, or previous knowledge, because they were striking out into the unknown and did not even really know whether their ideas would work, or not. Modern inventors truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
