“Mobility” has been redefined again and again over
time. The course of time has brought many forms of writing: permanent symbols drawn
on Mesopotamia cave walls during 3000 BCE, handwritten letters that were made
popular during the Belles-Lettres rhetoric period, and instantaneous texts sent
through modern-day cell phones. The first form of writing, the use of ancient symbols
on mainly cave walls, was permanent. Handwritten letters improved mobility of
writing immensely because it was a new form of person-to-person communication,
made popular with reading and writing being available to all social classes and
not just the elite. Texts, an instantaneous form of messaging via cell phones,
changed the speed of person-to-person communication, and therefore its mobility.
Handwritten letters, regarded by many
during its prime time as a valued form of art, took days, sometimes weeks
depending on location, to be received by the intended receiver. At their
pinnacle, the mobility of letters was useful as direct communication but at
moments untimely. Now, in a technological society, texts are the norm for
direct, person-to-person communication. Texts take seconds to send and
instantly are received by the intended receiver, giving the receiver a
notification on their cell phone. The length of time for how long it takes a
text to send does not matter on location. With that being said, there are exceptions
to the common rule. For example, those who send text messages abroad may
experience a delay due to if their cell phone plan allows abroad text messages,
and if so for usually high rates and slow service. In this example, easy and
convenient mobility of a text message has changed into a more time consuming
and costly form of communication. To combat this, emails are a popular form of
direct, person-to-person communication. Emails have high mobility because like
a text, they are instantaneous and take little time to be received. My father
is in the Navy and works directly for President Obama. As part of his job, he
travels very frequently all over the globe to coordinate events and security
for Obama. To communicate with me, he always sends emails via a tablet or
laptop. Texts can usually only be sent via cell phone, so the various methods
of sending an email account for its high mobility as well.
Mobility has changed writing over the
course of time with new forms. Each new form of writing increases its speed and
convenience. Without mobile writing, information would take days, even weeks,
to be published.
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