The Cultural Context and Evolution of the Telephone

The telephone completely changed how we communicate. Alexander Bell was a professor at Boston University when he built a device that allowed people to see speech in the form of sound-wave vibrations. This made Mr. Bell believe that somehow he could make sound waves turn into an electrical current and back into sound waves. After lots of studying electricity and conducting lots

In 2008, sales of cell phones across the world reached 1.28 billion (Solomon, 2011). As the cell phone industry grew, so did their features. Now, cell phones come equipped with GPS tracking, various types of applications (apps), e-mail programs, usage of the Internet with high speeds, and cameras. Different cultures have different wants and needs for what they desire in a phone.

Technology has advanced at a rapid rate over the past decade. We can now do things on the go, including social networking, shop, check email, not to mention, make a call. As technology develops, electronics get smaller and smaller. Over 10 years ago, cell phones were the size of (if not larger than) cordless house phones. We would only see them being carried by business men or lawyers. Now there are 8 year olds with blackberry’s. Cell phones are a huge part of most of our lives, But what effects have they had on American culture?

Telephone popularity saw an increase in the early 1900's. The telephone began to appear all over the place. The telephone began to be looked upon as a necessity, "By this time the telephone was settling into national consciousness as a fixed and permanent part of American life."2 The telephone allowed people to interact with other types of individuals, and this ability intrigued the American public. The telephone made it possible for contact to take place with people who normally can not because of being apart by large distances. People want to communicate quickly with others, and the telephone makes this happen. By this time the telephone was not a luxury good, but necessary for survival. Cities especially, saw the telephone as an essential part of society; "Literally telephone service is a life-and-death matter to the citizens of every urban community in America."3 Although the telephone was popular in cities, it was surprisingly popular in the rural Midwest. The telephone created a need to know what took place in the world. The Midwest was not as densely populated and the telephone developed an excellent way to communicate the news of the day amongst surrounding communities. Before, one would have to rely on the news spreading via word

In two different articles, "Is Anything Wrong With This Picture" by Kristen Lewis and Lauren Tarshis, and "How The Telephone Made America Rude" (no author), phones are presented as the main reason that made us rude. In "Is Anything Wrong With This Picture'', they represent phones as a new way for us to be rude. The article states, "We don't bother to take out our earbuds in the checkout line. We post unflattering photos of our friends to Instagram because WE look good in them"(Tarshis and Lewis 25).This shows how rude we really are when it comes to phones or electronics. It shows how ignorant and careless we are about things. Without electronics, we would not be like this. In "How The Telephone Made America Rude", They show how we have made

Technological improvements saw an increase in the ease of communication and transportation. In terms of making a big world smaller, the 1870s saw two of America’s most famous inventors make their mark: Alexander Graham Bell, with the telephone, and Thomas Edison, with the electric light bulb. Before Bell, the primary means of communication was with a pen and

The Social Construction of Technology (or SCOT) is a new research tradition rooted in the sociology of technology. SCOT provides a multi-directional model based on the property of interpretative flexibility, and emphasizes on social influences on the technology design and development. This paper will apply SCOT principles to explore the development of cell phone, define the development of cell phone into three different stages historically, and analyze the interpretative flexibility of the cell phone accordingly in the three different stages. Based on SCOT theory, this paper will discuss how the original huge cell phones are shaped and developed by social influences to the smartphones in today’s life.

We seem to be hyped up by the most recent innovations, mesmerized by the spectrum of conveniences and advantages that they can offer, without realizing the ominous aftermath of this ephemeral trend. In Eula Biss’ essay “Time and Distance Overcome,” an ingenious mind of the past sought to connect the households under a vast wire communication system to keep them more intact. When Alexander Graham Bell broadcasted the telephone and telephone poles with a grand project of constructing a social network, Thomas Edison eulogized its efficiency: Biss explicates how people of the past were at first fascinated by the idea that the human voice can be transmitted through telephone wires. However, no one would have speculated that the technology that was developed with a modest purpose of reuniting families via the human voice would be used as a tool to commit violence such as in race riots and lynching. To much surprise, the most benign form of telephone poles were used for hanging innocent Black people after they had been cut down half-alive, beaten to death with clubs, and even burned with oil.

After working for his dad for a while Bell meet someone by the name of Thomas Watson, and they soon became partners. They worked on a design of the “first practical telephone.” “On March 10, 1876, Bell and Watson were successful.” After the long hard days of working on the design they had done it. They had made the first telephone. That was one of the biggest impacts on the world anybody could have ever done. People saw how smart Alexander Graham Bell was by making all of these inventions. They also saw what a great man he

If you have ever opened up a phone (do not try this at home, you might

Directions: Select a topic from the case studies in the text. You may choose any of the topics, except those covered in previous assignments. Examples of topics you might investigate include: using telecommunications to keep in touch with co-workers; telecommunications innovation; managing telecommunications; emerging telecommunications technologies; and so on.

Early in 1874 Bell met Thomas A. Watson, a young machinist at a Boston electrical shop. Watson became Bell’s indispensable assistant, bringing to Bell’s experiments the crucial ingredient that had been lacking, his technical expertise in electrical engineering. Together the two men spent endless hours experimenting (Paschoff 43,44). Although Bell formed the basic concept of the telephone using a varying but unbroken electric current to transmit the varying sound waves of human speech, in the summer of 1874, Hubbard insisted that the young inventor focus his efforts on the harmonic telegraph instead. Bell wanted to continue his work on the telephone but he complied. When he patented one of his telegraph designs in February 1875, he found that Elisha Gray had patented a multiple telegraph two days earlier. Greatly discouraged, Bell consulted in Washington with the elderly Joseph Henry, who urged Bell to pursue his “germ of a great invention” speech transmission (Grosvenor and Wesson 55).

Following the time when the mid 1980s, phones have been rapidly moving their route into our commonplace lives, particularly with the presentation of cam telephones in the early part of the new thousand years. As cells develop they have more of an effect on our commonplace lives and I need to exactly how much they are affecting. Similarly as with new engineering in whatever other structure, phones have changed enormously over their generally short life compasses. As these progressions happen, so does the populaces like and here and there loathe for these new advanced cells. One of the real issues happening with cell telephones in present day times is that individuals use them at wrong times, for example, when they are looking at of a market. Despite the fact that there are a couple negative perspectives about phones, my exploration and my paper are going to mostly the profits of Pdas in the United States of America. My exploration concentrates on a few key regions in wireless correspondence, for example, the advancement of Pdas, content informing, Pdas and other PDA applications and in addition my own particular exploration including a overview that I dispersed to some of my colleagues.

groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver’s skid row, In the Realm of Hungry

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world has become a smaller place. The time used to travel to far distances has diminished; with the growth of new technologies, traveling and communicating have become simple daily tasks for many people. Through the growth of global communication, people have become closer to others across the globe, and business has gone world wide. One invention that came along with the technological revolution is the cell phone. Cell phones allow us to be reachable anywhere at anytime, letting us communicate even during travel. As time becomes more valuable for people, the importance of accessibility to communication also increases. With cell phones, the communication and