memex2 #atomic #telephone¶

[!quote|#5fb236] Highlight But telephone talk was also rooted in the historical moment at which the technology appeared. The telephone was born in an era of rapid and wrenching economic change. The consolidation of national markets, the growth of continent-spanning corporations, and the turmoil of economic depression and labor unrest all added up to a profound transformation for which communication technology was both a symbol and a cause. Wires and poles could be seen, while abstractions like ‘‘the economy,’’ ‘‘the market,’’ or ‘‘big business’’ could not. The visible parts of the new networks came to stand for the interdependency they made possible. Plans for the telephone contained arguments about how people ought to be connected, and thus about the proper organization of business, the economy, and society

Many things here.
The telephone was already born in an era where instant communication was an everyday thing and coroporations have already become massive because of it. The other part is that now that these huge corporations with near monopoly of the telegraph can pretty much pick and choose who has access to the telephone, pretty much a political game.

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Related Links: different from the Emergence of the telegraph, and the Britians Motivation for Telegraphy.