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A review by drjacvick
The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage
4.0
What a surprisingly fun historical account of the development, uses, and effects of the telegraph. Standage strung together an interesting narrative which made for an enjoyable and easy (non-academic/jargony/theoretical) read. It's great for anyone looking for an overview of the telegraph or a starting place for understanding the social developments/effects.
It really is amazing how much the development, uses, users, effects, and discourses of the telegraph parallel the internet. Everything from romances, to hackers, to concerns of privacy, to changing business practices, to issues of addiction/dependency, to the spread of news, gossip, and political information is eerily and strikingly similar. As a media scholar I already knew this, yet for some reason media scholarship so often uses the phone and letter writing as the precursors to the internet (with a mere, yea yea and the telegraph). Really we would all benefit from remembering the subcultures, discourses, effects, hype, users, social norms, etc. of the telegraph. Great read, quick, fun, informative, and all around enjoyable.
It really is amazing how much the development, uses, users, effects, and discourses of the telegraph parallel the internet. Everything from romances, to hackers, to concerns of privacy, to changing business practices, to issues of addiction/dependency, to the spread of news, gossip, and political information is eerily and strikingly similar. As a media scholar I already knew this, yet for some reason media scholarship so often uses the phone and letter writing as the precursors to the internet (with a mere, yea yea and the telegraph). Really we would all benefit from remembering the subcultures, discourses, effects, hype, users, social norms, etc. of the telegraph. Great read, quick, fun, informative, and all around enjoyable.