The Victorian Internet

Reading chapters eight and nine of The Victorian Internet about the telegraph was really interesting to see a few ways that the telegraph changed behavior in society and how we still see similar changes with modern technology today. For example, the telegraph marriage was a little extreme I’d say but in today’s society, long distance relationships can be aided by the use of texting, calling, and video chatting. However, I also find it interesting how they discussed how many people thought that it wasn’t real because it happened through the telegraph. I think this argument can also transfer to today because some people question that if you only ever talk to someone through texting, is it a real relationship? Another way the telegraph is representative of how some media are used today is because they explained how people normally expressed subtle or intimate messages over the telegraph. I relate this to how people today say things over text or social media that they might not normally say in person.

               Chapter nine discussed how the telegraph changed news and this was fascinating to me. Since we are so immersed in technology today, it is so hard to image a world without any of it. This chapter made me realize what it was actually like to not be able to communicate with people other than those around you. So the telegraph drastically changed news because now they could report about the other side of the world incredibly faster. The foreign correspondents used to have to write letters to deliver the news back home, but the telegraph was much faster. It became that the telegraph always won the news race instead of the newspapers because it traveled so much faster. This also makes me think of society today and how we always seem to hear major news on social media first, followed by validation from newspapers and broadcast news.