How the Telephone Shaped Lives Essay

Telephone is not just a communication device that serves a convenience in connecting people all around the world but in some ways affects each of our lives psychologically and emotionally to the point of becoming harmful, this according to John Brooks who wrote the essay â€Å"The Effects of the Telephone†. According to the author, â€Å"It has saved lives by getting rapid word of illness, injury, famine from remote places. † Information and news around the world was primarily distributed by way of a telephone until the emergence of today’s enhanced communications technology. It is genuinely undeniable that the telephone has essentially changed our lives. It has made long distances seem close through connections between families and friends who are living far from each other. Telephone also helps a country’s economy by serving as a means in helping business grow, be it a small one or a huge multi-national corporation since transactions can be made over the phone instead of waiting a few weeks for a mere document to arrive. These days, telephones have been developed to transmit documents by way of fax machines. In politics, it perhaps crucially has prevented or maybe aggravated war situations or misunderstandings among countries and nations. This has obliterated, maybe not totally, the art of letter writing and it has evolved into a faster, more efficient tools in connecting different people like the internet which has once began through telephone. These may be the obvious consequences of the materialization of this communication device but on the other hand, we should look at some of its psychologically destructive side. â€Å"The obvious effects just cited seem inadequate, mechanistic; they only scratch the surface. Perhaps the crucial effects are evanescent and immeasurable. † (Brooks) The author emphasized on the psychological effects of the telephone to people wherein its actual ringing may evoke emotions according to our expectations making it our nerve-ending to the society we are in. It may evoke hope of maybe hearing a phone call that would tell you that your job application has been accepted, the relief that a loved one may be calling to inform that she or he has arrived safely to her or his destination, the fear or anxiety of hearing bad news or emergencies if your phone rings in the middle of the night and joy to hear the voice of a person you miss. The writer has successfully and succinctly implied not just the beneficial side of the telephone but also the mental outcomes in our human systems. He has imparted his message vividly and makes the readers realize that unknowingly some things that we have or do everyday has gradually affected our lives. The telephone has become an important part of a household thus, a community as well. It lends people the convenience which makes life easier but people must also examine how things like these may enslave us that may make us take important things for granted.