Clubhouse, Spotify, and the invention of talking

Silicon Valley does it again

Talking.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

It was only a short while after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 that people started to wonder if the whole "talking to each other" thing was really such a good idea. "It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage … may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss," Mark Twain wrote in an 1890, "except the inventor of the telephone."

Nearly 150 years later, speaking to people who aren't in the same room as you continues to be a deeply annoying expectation of modern life. Blessedly, we've made great strides to remedy this over the years: Text messaging enables us to basically never use our phones as actual phones, and many of us carry out the majority of our workplace conversations through Slack emojis. We can pick the "chat" button when we're trying to reach customer service. We can even IM our doctors.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.