CONNECTED

With a recomndation of a friend I started to read Cal Newport's new book DEEP WORK. The most striking question at the beginning of the book was : "Does it really help my work to be constantly connected.".

How often do we have to be connected? Difficult question..

Long distance communication started with letters carried by travellers and improved by the professional operations by post offices . The time elapsed to carry the information inside the envelope   was related with its distance. The farther the receiver the longer time was needed.

This continued until the invention of the telegramme. Samuel Morse sent an information at electric speed in 1844. But still there was the need of a postman to carry the message to the receiver by foot taking hours..

Than came instant voice communication by Graham Bell telephone in 1876. Followed by mass broadcasting invention by Gugliemo Marconi the radio in 1895.

Telex machine was a distant teleprinter not as fast as voice communication but you have message printed onto a paper that you elaborate. The machine was working even in off hours. Its speed was at the beginning equal to the person typewriting skill. 10 finger writing was important as you were paying the telex connection by seconds. Two way communication was possible.  Machines improved to a quicker transfer of information by pre-punched tapes working similarly to Jacquard loom automation. In nineteen seventees the computerized telex machines allow the messanger to pre-write his message to the screen and send it afterwards. Massages started to be stored in machines in spite of paper.

The messaging speed increased tents of fold by voice-electronic combination devices known as facsimile. In a ess than a minute you were able to send a4 page writing or drawing or photographs.

You still need a machine ,electric power and telephone connection.

In eighties "pager" was able to send instant messages to portable smal rechargeable devices. The message was delivered by phone to the post office operator. Than was transferred to the pager in a minutes . Alerting you by beeping and trembling. This invention freed people to stay at the office waiting a call. In spite hiring a secretary ...

Internet connection of the personal computers through telephone lines by dial up system was the last stage in messaging at electric speed. Making the communication ever cheaper and quicker.

In nineteenninties Cellular car phones was than allowing to make a phone call while driving and making communication easier and freeing people of dieing batteries. As batteries improved cellular phones shrinked to a level to be carried in a pocket.

The appearance of first smart phones at beginning of the new millenia made people read their messages throughout their mobile phones tiny screens.

I recon the first smart phones beeping when a new message was received.How a showy was in the community!

Let me return the the book  that I was reading , where the author now is pretanding that such a speedy messaging is making us less productive and less creative because such continuous poke of messages are distracting us and making difficult to be concentrated in a difficult tasks.

Avram Aji
24.06.2020