How the Telephone Brought Societal Change by Fernando Quintero Sociology professor Claude S. Fischer rang in the new year with a new award for his ground-breaking social study of the telephone in North America up to 1940. When we talk about technology, we speculate about what the implications of technology are. I wanted to show that we adapt technology to our own lives.
People are much more resilient than they're given credit for.
Because the turn of the century brought about such rapid changes in communication and transportation, Fischer found himself focusing his attention to the period between 1880 and 1920. I wanted to see how this technology played a role in the modernization of society. Fischer examines the history of the telephone to challenge the common assumption that technology such as the telephone drives social change. He challenges the belief that the telephone helped to create a modern alienated society by undermining social bonds and enlarging social connections outside immediate areas. Fischer said speculation about the telephone was that it would speed up life, eliminate regional accents, create a greater democracy and have people working out of their homes.