Remember the Telephone

If writers, academics, and observers of all stripes are concerned about the effects social media are having on society, they're hardly the first to worry about the changes wrought by a new technology.

Pretty much any disruptive technology is met with a now-familiar cycle of dismissal, "grandiose pronouncements," and gradual adoption, explains Tom Vanderbilt, and for a fine telling of what this has looked like historically, turn to his story of the telephone's early life in the new issue of the Wilson Quarterly. Yet despite its "seemingly transformative nature," the telephone, Vanderbilt writes, is rather understudied. There is not a single scholarly publication devoted in its entirety to the phone. The parallels between its early years and our own nascent Internet age go unremarked. "Even the mobile phone, arguably, is more scrutinized for its computer-like texting functions than its influence on our vocal communication."