The film Far Speaking tells of the history of telephone development from 1877 to 1935. The film also tells the story of a married couple and their experience will the telephone throughout their lifetimes. When the couple first gets a telephone in 1877, the woman believed that the telephone was not very interesting and that it wouldn't catch on in the future. She thought that thinking about being able to call other people in other cities across the world was only for dreamers.
The film begins in the year of 1877 with one of the first telephones in an Eastern city. This telephone showed some flaws, as it was just becoming popular. In 1885, long distance calls began and this allowed people to connect all over the country. At this time the telephone also began to use better equipment to improve call distance, which included loaded coils and vacuum tubes. Once 1915 rolled around, telephone calls spanned across the world and allowed people to connect with others in different continents. This is shown at the end of the film when the couple from the beginning, who now are in their elderly years, receive a phone call from their granddaughter, who is in Japan. This allows the woman to believe that telephones could be able to reach across the world, even though she still does not fully believe it is true.
This film is useful to students of modern information and to our topics in LIS 201 because of how it expresses how the telephone changed the ways that information is transferred to different people throughout society. The telephone was a revolutionary technology that allowed individuals to be able to connect to each other from across the world, which allows information to be spread easily, and the film does a well job demonstrating this. This film shows of the history of the telephone, which was a different way to spread information at the time. Even today the telephone is one of the most popular ways to spread information throughout society. The history of the telephone allows modern students to learn about how this revolutionary way to spread information became popular and how it began many years ago.
2 comments:
Demetrius,
I cannot agree with you more on the film that the telephone has made a great impact on society. I find it rather fascinating how much the telephone has gone throughout the years of technological advancement. You seemed like you enjoyed the film. I really enjoyed how you had the dates listed.
The lady that said she didn't believe the phone would make it to the future is nonsense. I believe that anything can make it to the future if it is out into the right care and remains consistent with society. The film also seemed very touching how they were able to receive their grand-daughter’s phone call in the end. Very well summarized!
I also agree with you that this film is very useful to the students of modern technology because of those reasons and the way that it informs students about the history. The telephone will make an everlasting impact.
Good summary of the article, Demetrius! I also thought that this was a fairly interesting piece on the history of the telephone, if not a bit corny with the intro and outro scenes between Mr. Reynolds and his wife.
I agree with your point that the film is a good example of the importance of the spread of the telephone as a communication technology, as it shows just how important and revolutionary "far speaking" was at the time. I think we can connect that to any communication technology that arises today, as each one tends to connect us in new ways that were previously impossible. The quote from Woodrow Wilson about the importance of the connection of the coasts of America by telephone shows that it was clear to even the president how important such communication was to society as a whole.
I also thought it was hilarious how the woman at the beginning claimed that the telephone would never catch on, a bit of dramatic irony for us today. This is a lot like how people today reject the importance and power of new communication technologies rising today, and how this has been done throughout history. There will always be resistance to change, which is something we are seeing plenty of examples of throughout our FIG classes!
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