Communication Through Time

Communication is the way we share information with other people.

Every day we share information with others. We talk, we listen, we write and we read. We also use pictures, signs and sounds. All of these are ways of communicating.

• We communicate to ask for help and to keep each other safe.
• We communicate to share news, stories and feelings.
• We communicate to learn from other people and to teach them.

Long ago, before writing, people shared everything by talking.

The oldest way to communicate is by speaking and listening. Elders told stories to teach children about their family, their history and how to live well. This is called oral tradition - passing on knowledge by word of mouth.

• Stories, songs and praise poems were remembered and told again and again.
• The San and Khoi people of South Africa passed on their history this way.
• Some knowledge was never written down, but it was not lost - it was remembered and shared.

How do you send a message to people who are too far away to hear your voice?

Long ago, people found clever ways to send messages over long distances. Drums were beaten in special patterns, and each pattern told neighbours about news or danger. Smoke signals and fires could be seen far away and warned people of things they needed to know.

• Drum patterns could warn a village that visitors or danger were coming.
• Smoke by day and fire by night could be seen across long distances.
• Messengers also ran or rode to carry important words from place to place.

Some of the oldest messages in South Africa were painted onto rock.

The San people painted and carved pictures on rocks and cave walls. This rock art showed animals, hunts and important events. The pictures shared ideas and stories, and many of them can still be seen today, thousands of years later.

• Rock art is one of the oldest forms of recorded communication.
• The pictures tell us about the animals, beliefs and lives of the artists.
• Because it was painted on stone, the message lasted for a very long time.

People learned to turn sounds and ideas into marks we call writing.

Thousands of years ago, people such as the ancient Egyptians began using symbols to stand for things and sounds. Over a long time these symbols grew into alphabets - small sets of letters we join together to make words. Writing let people keep records and send exact messages.

• Writing means a message can be kept and read again later.
• An alphabet uses just a few letters to write any word.
• People wrote on clay, stone, animal skins and later on paper.

For a long time every book had to be copied by hand, one at a time.

About 600 years ago a machine called the printing press was invented. It could print the same page many times, quickly. Now books and newspapers could be made in large numbers, so many more people could read the same information.

• Before printing, books were rare and very expensive.
• Printing made books cheaper, so more people learned to read.
• Newspapers let many people share the same news at the same time.

How do you send your own words to someone in another town?

People wrote letters and sent them through a postal system. Letters were carried by people on foot, on horseback, by ship and later by train and aeroplane. A letter could carry your exact words to family and friends far away.

• You put a letter in an envelope and add a stamp and an address.
• The post office collects letters and sends them to the right place.
• A letter could take days or weeks to arrive far away.

New machines let messages travel almost as fast as lightning, along wires.

The telegraph sent messages as short and long signals along wires using a special code. Then the telephone, invented in 1876, let people hear each other's voices across long distances. For the first time you could talk to someone far away, right away.

• The telegraph sent messages in a code of dots and dashes.
• The telephone let people speak and listen in real time.
• These machines made communication much faster than a letter.

Now messages could reach thousands of people at once, without any wires.

The radio sends sound through the air, so many people can listen to the same news, music and stories at the same time. Later, television added moving pictures to the sound. In South Africa, radio broadcasts began in the 1930s and television started in 1976.

• Radio brought news, music and sport into people's homes.
• Television added pictures, so we could see events as well as hear them.
• One broadcast could reach many people across the country at once.

Today we can send words, pictures and voices around the world in seconds.

Computers and the internet connect people all over the world. We send emails and messages, share photos and video-call family in other countries. Cellphones let us do all of this from our pockets, almost anywhere we go.

• The internet lets us send a message across the world in seconds.
• A cellphone can call, text, take photos and go online.
• We can now see and hear people far away at the very same time.

1. Long ago Talking, storytelling, drums and smoke signals
2. Long ago Rock art painted by the San people
3. Ancient times Writing and alphabets begin
4. About 1440 The printing press makes many books
5. 1876 The telephone lets voices travel far
6. 1930s Radio broadcasts reach South African homes
7. 1976 Television starts in South Africa
8. 1990s The internet and cellphones spread widely

The tools changed a lot, but the reason we communicate has stayed the same.

Communication has grown from spoken stories and drums all the way to the internet - but its purpose stays the same.

We travelled from talking, drums and smoke signals, to rock art and writing, to printing, the post, the telephone, radio, television and finally the internet and cellphones. Each new tool let messages travel faster and reach more people.