"It needs no batteries, has no moving machinery, and no skill is required. Only talk as if in ordinary conversation-and listen attentively" (49). The telephone transformed communication technology because before it, people had basically three ways of communicating with each other: by writing, using the telegraph, or using the pony express. Writing letters was an insufficient way of communicating because it took so long for them to arrive to their destination and they could get lost in the mail. Using the telegraph was inadequate because it was too expensive for worldwide use and it took a while to tap out a whole message and then translate it. The Pony Express was effective at the time, but compared to the telephone, it was extremely slow. Using the telephone "man, instead of being to make himself heard a few hundred yards away with a shout, can make himself heard and understood around the world with a whisper" (Baldner paragraph 3). The telephone has saved lives, allowed families to move apart yet stick together, and allowed people not only communicate better, but to communicate more (Fitzgerald Studio paragraph 9). Communication technology skyrocketed after the invention of the telephone by improving interpersonal communications. .
The invention of the telephone reformed communication technology by aiding business interactions. The telephone transformed communication technology in that it created new jobs opportunities such as operators, telemarketers, secretaries, phone companies, and information services (Eber 55). "People with telephones could then be linked together by operators who sat at panels of phone lines and moved levers to connect various lines" (Grolier 164). Telephones changed how scarce women were in the work force. The new jobs of operators and secretaries helped women become individuals. Women could finally make money for themselves and get out of the house once in a while.
