Prior to the year 1861, when Western Union completed the work on the first transcontinental telegraph, news could take days, even weeks to travel from town to town, state to state and even longer delays in information transfer would be seen from country to country. Throughout history, man has searched for faster, more reliable, ways to relay messages, news and information.

For instance, the first recorded use of homing pigeons used to send messages, was in 776 BC. The birds were used to announce the winner of the Olympic Games to the people of Athens Greece in a timely manner. Historically, human messengers would carry information either by foot or by horseback hundreds of miles to each town where at times, important information or news reported, could be days, weeks or even months old by the time it reached its final destination. During the Civil War, human messengers would carry important do(edited)ents from the front lines back to the generals and commanders who could be hundreds of miles from the actual fighting. More times than not, the messenger would be lost or killed on the road and the enemy would intercept the strategic information. Town Criers were used to pass along important information about the town to its residents; however, if you were not in earshot of the crier, you would most likely get inaccurate information later from someone else.

The telegraph and telephone helped to speed the process of information transfer greatly but, even then, the information was usually distorted and/or inaccurate. Due to the Information Highway, today news and information can be transferred instantaneously and simultaneously to anyone around the globe. News sites continually monitor the world’s activity and transfer the information through features like News Tickers, Instant E-Mail Alerts and Instant Messages.

Through MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger or any of the many other instant messaging software out there, family and friends can now live and work hundreds of miles away from each other and still be as close as their keyboard to their loved ones. Not only can they stay in touch through text but also now, with a video web camera, they can see and speak each other in “real time” These same tools can also help productivity in companies with offices half way around the globe of each other with the use of video conferencing, e-mail and Instant Messages.

The Internet is defined as a worldwide network of computer networks. It is an interconnection of large and small networks around the globe. Beginning in 1962 as a computer network for the U.S. military, it has over time, grown into a global communication tool of more than a million computers that share a common addressing scheme. Because of its origins in the United States, nearly 35% of all the languages used on the web is English.

Internet-based games and Internet Chat have created a new term called the Global Community. In the past most of our friends lived just a few miles away in the same neighborhood or school. Today, however, through internet games, you could play with someone that lives on the other side of the world and most likely, they will be speaking English.

In his book, The Wired Neighborhood, Doheny-Farina writes, “Techno-experts say that we are making the shift from the industrial society to the knowledge society.” “It is clear … that cyberspace will play an important role in knitting together the diverse communities of tomorrow, facilitating the creation of ‘electronic neighborhoods’ bound together not by geography but by shared interests.”

In addition, the Internet has made the concept of targeted communication – or containment of an issue – seem like wishful thinking. A good search engine can find a wealth of information about any topic and any company virtually anywhere. A press release issued in Akron, Ohio, can be picked up by someone web surfing the web in Tokyo, Japan. Any story (accurate or not) in a local newspaper can be called up and used as a source by a reporter, a government official or consumer, half a world away.

One of the more interesting aspects of communication that has changed due to internet is how our way of speaking is slowly changing. Because most communication over the internet is typed and not spoken, and the fact that most internet users are not professional typists, complex sentences are a thing of the past resulting in choppy broken-up statements. Sometimes, entire sentences are abbreviated, like LOL, ASL, BRB, and AFK. Not only is our sentence structure changing but also because of the internet, more and more people in other countries are speaking English.

The internet has shaped communication in so many ways, mostly out of mans need to be informed, and it is still changing today. Technology is constantly changing and information transfer is getting faster and faster by the day.

We have come a long way since Homing Pigeons and Town Criers, the Telegraph and the Pony Express. As for what’s next? Who knows but I am sure it will be faster, more reliable and Bill Gates will make a ton of money off it.