Remember the cave men? To be honest, we don’t know much. Don’t listen to those history specials on Smithsonian that suggest we’ve got all this information about some society that supposedly existed 10,000 years ago. At best, we have some bones and some building fragments, probably some tools and weapons. As a historian, its funny to me how easy it is for us to concoct some story from a few fragments, and everyone believes it. Ok, so I digress, we do know that even ancient societies had methods of communication, and in the oldest societies, that was done by pictures. Or, at least we know of cave drawings which imply that someone with intelligence was there and felt, at least, creative.
Well, one reason why I am slightly dismissive in my opening paragraph is that as a historian, we don’t truly know anything of depth until about the Bronze Age. Why then? Because that’s when we finally get to the Egyptians and societies of the Mesopotamian Valley where our first languages emerge. That matters because writing allows for records of what was going on—diaries, rulings, laws, stories, memories, etc… Now, instead of guessing what that tool fragment might have meant and instead, we can read what those people actually meant. So, in the teaching of civilization, we talk about the improvement of humankind and one of the key movements of change is in getting a written language.
Today, we seem to be regressing in some way, and it appears we are going back to pictorial communication. Are you getting snapchats yet? I told you how the 20 and under crowd is now using this as a key to communication. Of course, one aspect of snapchat is that the communication doesn’t last…you send it, the other person takes a look, and then the picture is gone. Note–this is a “supposedly” type thing because we all know that if its digital and live via the airwaves, it is never truly gone. But I am convinced that the young people of our country have not gravitated to this app for security reasons.
You can see that pictures are now their preferred method of communication by checking out Tumblr or Instagram. Vine does this with seven second videos…just moving pictures. Fast Company has caught this fact too, writing in November 2014 that “Digital cameras made photography an instant experience, the iPhone put a great camera in everyone’s pocket, and social networks turned images into mass communication.”
Is there a downside? I’m not sure…probably doesn’t matter as people will do what they do. Just be ready to learn how to communication like the cave man….with pictures that have short snappy captions. That may be all you get from someone trying to tell you a story….a picture. I wonder if centuries from now, historians will be making up stories as to what we were trying to talk about like we do now about ancient societies?