Raymond Williams, author of “Keywords” (see entry for “K” on April 12) wrote:
“Communication in its most general modern meaning has been in the language since C15” (15th century). The word stems from Latin communis – common: “hence communicate – make common to many, impart. Communication was first this action, and then, the object thus made common: a communication… It was in C20, with the development of other means of passing information and maintaining social contact, that communications came also and perhaps predominantly to refer to such Media as the press and broadcasting.”
Our age has been called “the information age”, but would it be better named “communication age” with that last meaning, to include “social media”?
Of Glass & Paper 
I am very grateful to be in the communication age. I’m terrible at communication face to face, but online it’s much easier.
Rhi
scruffy-duck.net // Welsh Bloggers
LikeLike
A great post, and a very relevant question. I would agree that the defined ‘information’ age may be behind us; most don’t seem to care about the relevance of the information as much as how it is received. I would venture a guess to say that an age will soon be upon us where we are no longer required to interact through any mean other than electronic socialization. It seems like a dystopian notion of a future that should never be, but just this past Christmas I sat in a room with five 20’something year old’s and there was dead silence – other than the chiming of cellphone notifications. They were all in the same room texting to one another – no eye contact, no inflection, no verbal or physical interaction. It was extremely disturbing!
Thank you for the post! 🙂
LikeLike
“Communication Age” would definitely be more fitting, since most of the information we get is “misinformation”, even from the online encyclopedias (Wiki). Great post!
Alex Hurst, fantasy author in Japan, participating in Blogging A-Z April Challenge.
LikeLike