Naomi and all, I wrote my Ph.D. about the long-term evolution of the telephone system in Germany and work about ICTs usage. It strikes me when people argue as if live started with the Internet, or to take another popular theme, the Internet creates a global village. Technically speaking I can send an email to Tibet or Shangri-La now. However, technically speaking this was possible since shortwave radiotelephony in the 1920s, and the more populated world is reachable in a reasonable time by telegrams and postal letters since, at least, the late 19th century. printed matter, Kassel (central Germany) - Berkeley, late 19th century: took 2 weeks. how much faster today ?? Amazon delivers more slowly This says nothing about the fact that social, commercial, political, or military demand maybe don't exist to use ll these wonderful potential. Communication technology is socially constructed around physical laws in material artefacts and social conditions of use as well as usage routines. After such a long intro, I come to my point: the majority of telegrams in the 19th century were inner-urban, at least in Germany, the majority of telephone calls during the first century were within 80 kms, i.e. within the agglomeration the caller lived today in Europe, 60% of private emails are within 50km from the sender, very close to the distance distribution for postal letters (Smoreda & Thomas), today in Canada, the distance gradient for emails originating in Toronto is very similar (see Wellman in Science). There is one major difference between my historic telephone and today's email distance gradients: the first concerned more or less business, the latter private communications. In both cases however, the data show that, theoretically, the Internet might become more attractive as so many Chinese now have access to the web but as so few of them live in my vicinity, speak my language, and above all, belong to my social cercle of family, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. I think we need more research about social life before and after the arrival of the Internet before pretending that the Internet changed life so enormeously (for those who are connected). I am always surprised to see that among the social network Internet researcher community so few cite the empirical urban socology studies of the 1960s and 1970s that piled tables and tables of stats about (social) connectedness and compare them with today to see if things have really changed in private life. Regards, Frank Naomi Susan Baron wrote:
Nancy Baym's right: multiple daily mail deliveries were common in 19th c London (not to mention in other parts of the world, such as the large cities in India, well into the 20th c). It's also important to remember that besides such "public" mail deliveries, it was quite common to have servants, messenger boys, and the like (a street urchin would do in a pinch) deliver letters across town quite regularly. As the telegraph was introduced (and then became increasingly affordable and accessible), telegrams were sent across town, from business to business, or from business to home (for those wealthy enough to have home access) for many of the same sorts of reasons we send emails to local recipients.
Naomi
Naomi Baron Professor of Linguistics American University Washington, DC 20016-8045
_______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
-- ---------------------------- Frank Thomas FTR Internet Research 321, boulevard de la Boissière 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois France tél. 0033.1.48.94.36.90