History of Texting LOL!

A conversation with some old friends at dinner last night and a “This Date in History” story this morning got me thinking . . .

Imagination a communications tool that uses the fewest and shortest words possible to communicate a thought or idea.  One that “old timers” say will surely ruin future generations’ ability to speak or write the English language.

Texting, right?

Sometimes it’s fun to reverse engineer current technology to see how we got here. 

On this day in 1838, Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication. He demonstrated his invention using Morse code, in which dots and dashes represented letters and numbers.

GR8, right?

In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: “What hath God wrought!” (Today, that would probably read: “WHGW!”).

L8R, private companies, using Morse’s patent, set up telegraph lines around the Northeast. Then came Western Union, the first transcontinental line across the United States, the first successful permanent line across the Atlantic Ocean (imagine the logistics of laying a permanent line across the Atlantic).  By 1870s, world news could quickly spread worldwide.

Because telegraph companies typically charged by the word, telegrams were known for their succinct prose “stop”

"stop"?

Here’s a bit of trivia:  The word “stop” was used in place of a period because, for some odd reason, the word “stop” was free and there was a charge for the period.  WTF?

Of course, time and technological innovation marches on.  Over the course of the 20th century, telegraph messages were largely replaced by long-distance phone serve, fax, email, and now texting.  Western Union delivered its final telegram in January 2006 “stop”

At this point some of you may be thinking DILLIGAS  (Do I Look Like I Give A Sh**), so I’ll just wrap this up.

We can thank Mr. Samuel Morse’s telegraph system (demonstrated for the first time on this date) for laying the foundation of this epidemic that is texting.  But, if you’re one of those who people who believe texting is “penmanship for illiterates” and will ruin future generations ability to speak or write the English language, you can thank Samuel Morse for being able to send out the International Morse code distress signal of SOS (· · · – – – · · ·) stop

TYVM for reading today’s post stop  TTYL stop HAGW stop

Carpe Diem Life,
David Kuhn

CarpeDiem-Life.com