Look How Far We Have Come

Jacob Logiudice
Sep 8, 2018 · 4 min read

Let’s take a trip through the eras

noun: history; plural noun: histories

1.) the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.

2.) the whole series of past events connected with someone or something.

3.) a continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution

The only way for us to analyze how the eras have changed is to go back and look at the history of human interaction as a whole. The four eras of human history are dependent on the evolution of human interaction and cultural change. The ways in which humans communicate has changed 100% since the tribal and oral society days compared to the present (post modern society). In Joshua Meyrowitzs’ article, Media Evolution and Cultural Change, and Michael Sohas’, Technology & Social Change: Four Major Eras, the authors analyze and go into depth on the way human interaction has affected the eras. Starting with the tribal era going all the way through to the current day society.

In the tribal society day there was no looking back at history, there was no word “history” for people to reflect on. Elders were considered the book keepers being that they had the most knowledge. There was no writing, humans relied solely on interactions. Society’s and small communities worked together as one. There was no public sphere, privacy was not a thing, there was never a reason where someone needed alone time. The idea of work was not a thing either, these humans and communities did what they had to do to survive and able to celebrate their cultural traditions. The act of individualism was not yet prevalent in this day and age. I can not even imagine a life where we had no forms of retaining information, in todays day and age everything is reliant on the information that one person possesses.

The tribal era then leads to the scribal era. The act of oral communication was still the dominant way of communicating, while a small group of elitist were able to read and write. These humans who could read and write worked directly with the Catholic Church. Their jobs for their whole lives were to copy bibles which took years. 95% of people still had no forms of writing or reading capabilities due to only the church teaching the scribes to read and write. The church used the other ways of communicating to be able to communicate and stay in touch with the common folk. Using art, sculptures and even their stained glass to be able to tell stories that most could understand.

Civilization was at its early stages and so was a powerful monarchy type government, the fights over power show the scribal era leading into the modern(ist) era. The invention of the printing press was one of the greatest inventions in the history of man. The printing press lead to the first use of mass communication and media. Martin Luther used the printing press to start the first ever public relations media campaign, using propaganda to spread the message that the church was abusing their powers. The printing press gave the common folk the ability to be able to harness knowledge for the first time ever, giving people the option to have their own thoughts and views. “Master narratives, that is the ability to have overarching stories, mythologies, and values that an entire society or country adhere to” (Soha). Meaning that

the common people were finally starting to leave the past in the past and this is when the the modern era started bringing new values with it. Values such as civil liberties, individual rights. These then lead to jobs being formed to work which then lead to having leisure time. Leisure time was a new idea as well, people finally got to work and enjoy anything they wanted. I could never imagine a life with no weekend, a big thank you goes out to unions who fought for the right to have 40-hour work weeks! If it was not for the printing press we would not know the world as we now know it. What came after this is what we are most familiar with. The post modern era. This era included the counter culture movement that shows the impacts that modern day society has had on our culture. “Mobile phones as one example, are now also type-writers, mail systems, news sources, voice and music record players, alarm clocks, calendars, photo and video cameras and viewers, global positioning, and other devices (Meyrowitz, 61). Our culture has been so heavily involved with this new technology that we need to be able to focus on how this truly affects who we are as people. We can do more with one smart phone than what all previous eras could do with all their knowledge combined.

The only way I was able to write this article was due to the evolution throughout the four eras. Thank you to the tribal, scribal, modern and the post modern society for allowing me to be able to take a trip through history.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade