Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years Paperback – September 16, 2014

I bought this book on the recommendation of Paul Krugman in one of his blog posts. It's very enlightening and great fun to read, and creates links through history no one has done before. From the ancient Greeks to modern day, Tom does an outstanding job of explaining how what we take for granted today is the evolution of communication over several millennia. If you tweet, post, blog or email, you should read this book.

The internet has changed our ability to interact with one another profoundly. Seems obvious to those who actively use the tools so easily available to us like facebook, twitter, whatsapp, etc... Tom Standage gives a perspective on how people have interacted given the mediums of their time in the past and perhaps not so surprisingly, our patterns today resemble patterns of the past. After an era of centralized broadcasting catalyzed by the radio and TV, social participation has reverted back to peer to peer. Writing on the Wall discusses our history and some specific technological breakthroughs that changed the way we interact with one another.Writing on the Wall documents aspects of social interaction through the ages starting its first analysis with Roman Civilization. The author describes how messengers constantly delivered messages back and forth among the elite to keep each other abreast of the social and political spheres they operated within. The style was conversational and scribes for brevity had systems to efficiently condense common phrases to transcribe more efficiently. The author moves onto the origin of Protestantism with Martin Luther and the use of the printing press to disseminate information via pamphlet. The use of the printing press in spreading information was instrumental in igniting popular discontent with the corruption in the ecclesiastical system. The author discusses how in England poetry and clever and subtle rhymes were a means of earning a reputation and a source of creative outlet for the better educated. The author then discusses the role of the coffee house in the enlightenment and the migration from the social atmosphere of an ale house in which some of the darker aspects of social interaction happened to the coffee house facilitated lively debate and cross polination among intellectuals. The coffeehouse acted as a level playing field for all those who could afford the simple beveridge. The author moved on to the newspaper and how it spread throughout the US and provided for lively political commentary. The stamp tax catalysed a backlash from the media who would be directly affected and were an example of how again, the printing press was a strong force to enable dissemination of information. In the US having multiple points of view was applauded with the hope that the best explanations and reasons would be appreciated, in France papers were used as tools to attack ones enemies. The author shows how public media can be a force for informational dispersion as well as a force for creating chaos and paranoia. The author moves on to how the radio was used and the TV as well. The radio being more peer to peer initially as the cost of being a reciever and a transmitter is not particularly different but after specific incidents where individuals were seen to be interfering with state business, radio transmission went into a more regulated environment dominated by RCA (in the US) and BBC in the UK. The use of centralized media was instrumental in the spread of propoganda and controlling society (as in germany) as well as a medium to advertise, as in the US. The author then takes us into the modern world with the internet and the rebirth of peer to peer communication.Writing on the Wall is a lively history of ways in which people have interacted through history. Peer to peer dominated social media interactions and marketing is becoming the norm again after a long period in which centralized media was the norm but in reading this work it is clear that this form of interaction has been the norm in the past as well. I enjoyed reading this, its definitely not all new- the ability to publish different points of view as a consequence of the printing press is pretty obvious to most, but the authors discussion of how that medium was used in different ways in different times gives good perspective. Definitely worth reading.

Great study of social media from Roman times - when they wrote on literal walls to now. An overview of journalism and the media and how there is really nothing new under the sun..

It is a good book. It is particularly very well researched and starts from a curious idea: the Information Age, in which we live today, with all its paraphernalia of social media, electronic communication, TV, radio, newspapers and whatnot, has always existed.Technology and means were a bit backward, to say the least, but nothing has changed much: a deserving "nihil novum sub sole" sort of thought.These qualities justify my three stars and how I wished they were five!Many things. however, are worthy of consideration by what they miss rather than by what they cover and this book is one of those cases.Roger Vaillant, a French writer of the mid XXth century - and strangely a communist to make this comment - once coined the word "to Portugalize" to explain the fast decadence he felt both Britain and France were descending into.His idea was that Portugal, the first global empire ever, had simultaneous got tired of of her past efforts and narrowed her collective views into herself, clean forgetting the World outside and thus missing the will to go beyond her century of glory.This is very true of British social and historical review today. Standage's book covers extensively and very well what happened in England, particularly after the "printing revolution", treats American events as a sort of corollary and devotes a chapter each to momentous events elsewhere: the Roman Empire, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the birth of Nazism and use of radio, now the Arab spring and modern social networks.China, Russia, Spanish, Mogul, Persian and so many others go by the wayside. Many had as much population and covered a wider area than the British Empire. And probably as much influence on "writing on the wall" as England ever did.Nobody in his senses will deny that England had a lion's share in the development of "distribution" of thought as this is what the book is about. But not giving a simple thought on how Genghis Khan managed his internal politics at home while thousands of miles away or Spanish conquerors in South (or North) America kept abreast of court events in Madrid is a failing.Obviously, one cannot cover everything and this is not my criticism: what is , is that this failure is commonplace in post-imperial Britain as it will be in post-hegemonical USA or was in post-navigational Portugal.I have to make a strong exception to this general rule of Britain's cultural centrism to, say, Ann Wroe's "Perkin", that covers a subject of almost solely English interest with detailed outside world study. And her other books.Tom Standage could improve a lot if he read her colleague's books (both work at the same place).Maybe, next time, I'll add a star.

A very interesting and factual history of writing, and how it evolved over time. Shows how writing had an impacton peoples lives and events, and compares writing to Social Media of today. Excellent read .

Viene en perfecto estado, eso me dejó satisfecho por completo.

Who knew social media isn't anything new? Great book that has obviously been thoroughly researched by an author who is obviously passionate in history repeating itself. It really gives you an appreciation of how events in the last 2000 years shaped our culture today.

Brilliant book. Thoroughly researched. Shows that media has always been social. Except for a brief period in the 19th & 20th century when newspapers and then radio & television became industrialised.

Kaum zu glauben, dass dieser Autor studierter Maschinenbauer und Informatiker ist. So kundig, wie er historische Zusammenhänge quer über die Epochen ausbreitet: detail- und anekdotenreich, klug im jeweiligen gesellschaftlichen Kontext verstanden. Seine "tour de force" über die tief reichenden Wurzeln von Social Media gerät zu einer höchst erhellenden und kompakten Geschichte der Medien als solche. Und dazu, wie die Medien von der Entwicklung der Gesellschaft getragen waren - und sie selbst entscheidend vorangetragen haben.Besonders dankenswert: Die Parellelen sozialer Medien der Vergangenheit zu jenen von heute lässt der Autor häufig für sich sprechen, der Leser darf sich selbst seinen Reim machen. Das hält beim Lesen munter. Erst im Epilog versucht der Autor sich an einer breiten Interpretation und Zusammenfassung. Die hat mich nicht so ganz befriedigt: Aus den offensichtlichen Parallelen abzuleiten, dass Social Media powered by Internet schlicht die flottere Fortsetzung der sozialen Medienlandschaft von gestern sei, scheint mir doch zu kurz gegriffen.Die Analogien, die Tom Standage zwischen den Sozialen Medien von früher und heute herausgearbeitet hat, fand ich aufschlussreich. Die Unterschiede, die er nicht herausgearbeitet hat, fände ich nicht weniger spannend. Den Fortsetzungsband dazu würde ich jedenfalls lesen :- )

I heard Tom Standage talking about his book, about a week before I bought it. He was extremely enthusiastic about his subject is a way that you can't fake.This is a very detailed stroll through our communication methods,spanning the last 2,000 years.If that sound like a dreary read,think again. This is a very well researched and thought provoking book.You will need to be a certain age,but those of you who remember the TV presenter,James Burke, who did (amongst other things) a series for the BBC entitled connections, will find this book as entertaining as those programs.Thoroughly recommended.