By looking at the Gutenberg press one can really understand how far we've traveled as a society. Information is so readily available that was not previous centuries. If someone wanted to send a message they could send a single hand written letter.
However, if someone wanted to disperse information to many people it would take much more. Instead of simply thumbing a text to 30 of your friends, or tweeting the news to thousands of people, information had to be put together piece by piece, or placed letter by letter like on the Gutenberg press.
Without the Gutenberg press we would not have mass literacy today. Books had to be hand written so they were very expensive, but once movable type was invented, many copies of books could be made, which lowered the price. Without the availability of books there was no need to learn to read.
If our society only had very few people who knew how to read, the Internet would have not taken off, or would at least be very different today. It would only be a place for wealthy people or scholars to exchange information. Instead the Internet is the common people's voice. A place where no matter who you are, how much money you have, where you are in the world, everyone is on the same level.
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1 comment:
Very nice Avatar pic!
I enjoyed your post about Gutenberg, too. True, think about how we likely wouldn't have the Internet without Gutenberg; we would have the concept of mass media or distribution of content in the same way.
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