How We Communicate Has Changed

Across the Fence #535

The way we receive information and news that’s happening around the world has greatly changed during my lifetime. That realization passed through my mind the other day as I opened our rural mailbox to see if we had received any mail. It was mostly junk mail and a couple of bills, no personal letters. Those kinds of letters are few and far between these days. It’s still nice to receive a letter with a hand-written note inside. I sometimes get one of those from a reader who doesn’t have a computer. I also thought of poor old Charlie Brown who would open the mailbox each Valentine’s Day with great expectations, but was always disappointed when the mailbox was empty. 

A lot of happy and sad moments have centered around mailboxes and what we find or don’t find waiting for us. I thought of how different it was 100 years ago, and yet the anticipation and emotions haven’t changed. I remembered my grandmother, Inga Sherpe, telling about going to the mailbox during World War I, hoping to hear some news about her brother, John Ostrem, who was missing in action. Every day there was nothing. Then after several months, when she opened the mailbox she found a letter from John. She tore open the letter and then went running up the road to the house to tell everyone the good news. John had been severely wounded, but was alive and in a hospital in France. That’s the kind of emotional message that can come in a hand-written letter.

John Ostrem - World War I - 4th Infantry Division 

That was in 1918 and Grandma Inga couldn’t just pick up the phone and tell other people the news. They didn’t have a phone. They couldn’t get in the car and spread the news either. They didn’t have a car. I imagine they harnessed up the horses, climbed in the buggy, and headed off to tell other relatives and friends. That was happy news that couldn’t wait to be spread. 

We forget how limited our methods of communication were almost 100 years ago in 1918 compared to today, 2015. Now we have phones, cell phones, computers, iPads, e-mail, Twitter, and Skype, just to mention a few. All those methods are pretty much instantaneous ways to communicate with people almost anywhere in the world, and it’s right at our fingertips. We tend to forget how much all this technology has changed the way we exchange information.

The telephone was another huge improvement in how we communicate. Instead of walking or driving to a neighbor or friend to tell them some news, we can pick up the phone and call them. That’s something my grandmother couldn’t do when she found out her brother was alive. Eventually, most people had party lines, and everyone else on the line could hear what you were talking about. It was called rubbernecking. Now we have another form of rubbernecking. It’s called Facebook. Think about it, you can check on what your “friends” are posting and saying every day and they don’t know you’re listening in unless you click on “Like” or make a comment regarding something they said. You can check on what they had to eat that day, what they did, who they were with, who posted in a “selfie” with them, check up on what they are thinking about, what they like or don’t like, what their political and religious likes and dislikes are, and the list goes on and on. It’s just like rubbernecking on the old party line.

Think about how much has changed since our ancestors left their homeland in a foreign country and came to America. Letters were their only form of communication with family and friends they left behind. Think about how long it would have taken a letter to go from where you are to whatever country they came from and for a reply to get back to you. Some of those ocean voyages took two to four months. It could be ten to twelve months for a two-way conversation. Now I can call or instant message relatives in Norway and talk or type a message and it’s right now, 24/7. What would my great grandparents, who sailed from Norway, think about these technological changes?

Now we have instant news from around the world. During World War I it could take weeks for news to get to some rural areas. They couldn’t turn on a TV and watch live reports from the battlefields like we can today. Because of the limited sources of communication 100 years ago, my grandmother and the Ostrem family were left in the dark much of the time, and had no idea what John was going through. Thank goodness for local, hometown newspapers. People got most of their news from those weekly papers. That’s been the one constant during the past 100 years. Our local papers are still providing us stories about local people and happenings. That’s a valuable service in a changing world.

All the technological advances in how we communicate have brought the world to our doorstep and changed how we see it and our expanding universe. I wish I could time-travel 100 years into the future and see the changes and what new knowledge about life and our universe will be discovered. My grandmother and I would probably both say, “Uff da ney, I don’t believe it!”

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