The telegraph displaced older languages, interactions, and city-state capitalism

Evidence

A thorough treatment of the consequences of the telegraph would attempt to demonstrate how this instrument altered the spatial and temporal boundaries of human interaction, brought into existence new forms of language as well as new conceptual systems, and brought about new structures of social relations, particularly by fostering a national commercial middle class. These con- sequences were also displacements: older forms of language and writing declined, traditional social interactions waned, and the pattern of city-state capitalism that dominated the first half of the nineteenth century was broken up — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 776

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Harold Innis’s work on communication media transforming social and temporal structures — a running thread in this book. — connects to: Mechanical communication growth did not necessarily expand freedom and knowledge — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 650; The telegraph decisively separated communication from transportation — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 813; The telegraph made geography irrelevant to trade — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 827 (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 776

Broader Connections

• The telegraph decisively separated communication from transportation #contradicts (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 813
• Traditional social structures and orders can disintegrate over time #exemplifies (0.70)
• The telegraph made geography irrelevant to trade #expands (0.65) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 827