In the article “The Written Word: From Printing to the Internet” (2006) by Michael Noll, the history of communication between persons is outlined as starting with the written word and evolving to instant delivery of messages through the Internet. Obstacles with transportation, encoding and printing of the written word over the years were overcome with newer and better technologies, and the article makes the point in its introduction that the written word allowed for preservation of human speech, whereas it “could only be saved through memorization and passed on through oral tradition” in the past (15).
Beginning with paintings and carvings on tablets and evolving into an alphabetic language, written messages grew into a printing press of newspapers and magazines to broadcast news and information to a global audience. The article also brought light to the personality and intimacy of the written letter, now seen as a “lost art because of the widespread use” of the Internet and electronic, instantaneous communication methods (19). The physical written letter was presented as a close substitute for face-to-face communication because of the time and effort it takes compared to the instant messaging and e-mail of today.
An issue that arose with printed material was the same issue that came about with any other tangible product—it had to be physically delivered and distributed, and various forms of a postal service existed since 1600 BC with the Egyptians (18). While physical delivery of goods continues to exist today, the process and necessity of it for certain products can be seen as the next major step to be streamlined and simplified, or perhaps “digitized” or virtualized entirely in the future. Music, video and other media is now delivered digitally and outgrows their physical disc mediums, and it is only a matter of time and technology before more products are sent instantly rather than physically.
You've made a really good observation, in that one of the main reasons technology has progressed from paper to electronic media was for the ability to quickly transcribe and archive events that have occurred. This practice has, unfortunately, pushed us away from the personal touch of a face-to-face discussion or in the time taken to handwrite a letter, as we now resort to the easy solution of writing an email or sending an instant message. Although this ability now affords us a chance to distribute our information, ideas, history or thoughts quickly and to a greater amount of people, it is at the sacrifice of the personal touch.
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