Early Forms

• The earliest forms of nonverbal communications are believed to be the inscriptions depicted upon and found among cave walls throughout the world. Within the Chauvent Cave in southern France in 1994, for example, archeologists found drawings which date back 30,000 to 37,000 years ago according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although very primitive compared to today's standards, such wall writings are considered the first technological advance in communications.
  
  

Printing Breakthrough

• After Johannes Gutenberg invented mechanical movable type, printed communication became much cheaper and quicker to mass produce. Gutenberg's development allowed for newspapers and other sorts of literature to become readily available to the public. Such communications began trickling down to all classes of society, allowing for various kinds of information to be more easily exchanged through writing.
  
  

Global Communication

• Even after the modernized printing press was developed, people who moved to new areas of America and the rest of the world were faced with the problem of global communication. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee notes that letters being carried between traveling friends was the earliest form of long distance communication. In the United States, "The Postal Act of 1711 altered the system. The Postmaster became a royal appointee, rather than a private charter. This helped expand and improve postal service, especially in the southern colonies where settlements were dispersed."
  
  

Telecommunications

• Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone revolutionized global communication. According to the Franklin Institute, his first telephone was dubbed an "electrical speech machine" in 1876. The first phone conversation exchange was set up in Connecticut in 1878; six years later long distance communication was established between Boston and New York. Over the next century, the telecommunication systems would evolve into transcontinental lines, data lines and the modern cell phone.
  
  

The Wireless Age

• In 1983, as stated by Best Buy Mobile, Martin Cooper was credited with developing the first commercial cell phone. According to Time, the smart phone--first introduced by Philips in 1997--was the first telephonic device to utilize email and internet access. Cell phones have continued to evolve into smaller and more powerful devices; some are essentially small computers. The iPhone, BlackBerry and Android now provide users with a myriad of Personal Information Management tools. The combination of internet access, texting, email, maps and even mobile banking are practically considered the norm as phones continue to evolve.