You may have wondered what life was like before the cell phone was invented. Being born in 2001, I know it is something that I sometimes think about. My whole life has included the invention and wide use of the cellphone. It is strange to think kids born today will have this same memory, but with the prevalence of the smartphone currently. This week’s discussion in class of another communication method, the telegram, has put me in a communication headspace. I started to think about times further than the cellphone and telegram. What was that like?

I set out to learn more, and my first stop was to hop on the Pony Express. I learned about it in grade school, but at the time, I was probably too busy thinking about cowboys and horses to really take in what that time must have been like. It is interesting to think that there was a time when it would take a message ten days to travel via the Pony Express just to go from one side of the country to the other. I frequently chat with a friend of mine who lives in Italy now, and we can instantly call anytime of the day. The spread of information must have taken so much time; I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to clear your name of a rumor.

Today’s communication is so fast, though it sometimes causes problems of its own. Anybody can say anything at any time. That, within itself, is not a problem; people have always been able to do that, but it does have some negative consequences. One form of communication that’s less complicated is smoke signals. Smoke signals were also used to relay messages before the telegram. The signals were also reported as being quicker than a horse in the amount of time it takes to relay the message. The only downfall is that the message was much less detailed. This leaves me with only one more question. Is a smoke signal digital or analog?