Which of the following has been more revolutionary?

[Very_Boring_Name]

Poll question: Which of the following has been more revolutionary?

All things considered

[justiceischeap]

1. Other: Word of Mouth nt

[Very_Boring_Name]

2. That's not an option

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Other: the printing press

[xchrom]

5. +1

[RainDog]

16. printing press was the most revolutionary communications change

until the internet.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Relatively? Radio, hands down!

While the Internet is a big deal, a shortwave radio transmitter and a solid operator requires far less infrastructure to support and can get critical information out just as well, IMO.

PB

[cutlassmama]

14. Plus it can't be totally shut down like the internet.

[EFerrari]

23. I voted for radio, too. n/t

[upi402]

6. communication - all forms

Depends on time period. Now we're in the internet/social network period so it seems more effective. It may well be. But pain is the motivator, and our relative tolerance ability of that pain.


IMHO

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. cell phone more revolutionary than land line phone.

Much of the news during crisis getting to internet thru cell phones.

[Donnachaidh]

8. television is counter-revolutionary today

IMO, YMMV...:shrug:

[realisticphish]

9. Do you mean historically, or contemporaneously?

historically, I would argue that first the printing press, than the radio; the creation of media, of an awareness of the world outside of walking/riding distance is mind-blowing.

[Very_Boring_Name]

10. both

EVERYTHING considered

[realisticphish]

21. i would still stay with radio

(since printed word is not an option) its still the first real mass media, and requires far less infrastructure to run than the internet. I won't deny that the internet is a major revolution, but I don't think it changed things as much as radio did

[Hydra]

11. The internet wins this one due to choice

Almost anything you could ever imagine is available all the time.

That access, and the speed has changed our world immeasurably. Consider us watching what happened in Egypt almost real-time, and how the message was not able to be re-written as easily.

[LeftishBrit]

12. The printing press. All the others are in a sense spin-offs of that.

[Auggie]

13. Could be argued the impact of the internet has yet to be realized...

it's still evolving. But that got my vote.

[BOG PERSON]

15. other: every alphabet, ever

[JVS]

17. The telephone. Finally being able to have instant communication over long distances changed...

a lot.

[frazzled]

18. Please remember ...

That the world's "great" revolutions happened well before the Internet, before Facebook and Twitter, and were quite successful.

1. The patriots in Lexington and Concord had an elaborate system of communication set up. How do you think they knew the "British were coming" and were out on Lexington Green armed and ready when they came?



2. The French Revolution managed to take place completely--imagine it!--without Twitter. Feuilletons and word-of-mouth managed to get masses of people out into the streets, and to know exactly what was going on in the Estates-General and the Assembly. 1789 was, like, incredible, man.



3. The Paris Commune of 1871 installed itself with a revolution completely devoid of email, cable television, or Facebook.



4. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 also managed to occur sans digital means



Ditto for the Spanish Civil War, the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., the huge Vietnam protests of the 1960s and early 1970s (how did we learn where to go? Flyers quickly run off on mimeo machines and pasted to streetposts, buildings, and even mailboxes).

I guess I'd have to say the printing press and word-of-mouth have been the most important means of communication for revolution.

[realisticphish]

22. +1 nt

[Odin2005]

19. Internet is the biggest communications revolution since the Printing Press.

[Rage for Order]

20. I vote the telephone

Prior to the telephone (actually, the telegraph, probably) there was no way to have nearly instantaneous communication with someone a country or ocean away. If you wanted to talk to someone in Europe you wrote a letter, waited 2-3 weeks for them to receive it, then waited 2-3 weeks for their reply. Once the phone acme along that was reduced from weeks to seconds.

[Ozymanithrax]

24. They are all part of the same communications revolution.

that began with radio communication. So,it is radio.

[The_Commonist]

25. The internet.

I can ask a question about pretty much any subject and find the answer in about 5 seconds.
None of those things could do that...

[mrmpa]

26. radio

because that was an immediate connection of the world. the internet has been an evolution rather than a revolution.