Reading, 05dec2020:
@twweaver That's a fun book! I read it a few months ago. We forget that instant communication over great distances radically changed the world. The jump from telegraph to smartphone is much smaller.
@JMaxB @twweaver Coincidentally, I just read Amusing Ourselves to Death, which regards the telegraph as the obliteration of time and difference, and at least hints that it gave rise to trivial news circulating.