Media studies is strongly connected with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. The past can be divided into the time before books were available and after them have become a mainstream good. The interesting point is, that the time after inventing the Gutenberg press has become faster. Revolutionary inventions were made which have made the original press obsolete. The first one was the steam driven printing press in the 19th century which has reduced the costs dramatically. This sort of machine made it possible to print apart from books newspapers.
Another important invention was the first typewriting machine. This machine democratized the writing of books. Anybody who likes was able to write a book by it's own. He needs only an empty sheet of paper and a bit language skills. The next revolutionary device after the mechanic typewriter was the homecomputer. The businessman Jack Tramiel is a good example for this transition. In it's early years he worked for a company who produced typewriting machines, later he founded Commodore Computers and sold the famous homecomputer with 64kb of RAM. The transition from trypewriters to homecomputers was made during the early 1980s. The transition was much faster, then the invention of the first printing press 500 years ago. In less then 10 years, the desktop computers have replaced former typewriters at homes and in business.
After the homecomputer was on the market the next revolutionary invention was even bigger, it was the internet which was introduced for the mass market during 5 years. It took only 5 years from the release of the first WWW server in 1993 until the Internet was available widespread in the year 1998 which resulted into the dot com boom.
On a longer timespan the time between two revolutionary inventions has become shorter. It took 300 years from the Gutenberg press to the steam driven press. It took only 100 years from modern printing press to typewriters but it took only 15 years until the homecomputer replaced the typewriter and it took 5 years until the Internet was available worldwide.
Typewriters
In the year 1968 the Commodore 2200 was widespread available. It wasn't a homecomputer, but a home typewriter. From a technical perspective the machine wasn't very advanced, it looks like any kind of typewriters from that period. The fascinating feature was the brand name because only 20 years later, Commodore has evolved from a typewriter company to a computer manufacturer. In the year 1968 it was rare or not possible to become the proud owner of a homecomputer with 64kb of RAM. In that time, the computer hardware nor the software wasn't invented yet. That means, a personal typewriter was the most advanced technology the people can buy in this time.
Even a mechanical typewriter looks outdated for today's eyes in the 1960s it was a modern technology. Because the typewriter allows for anybody to create a book. It was similar to today's word processing tool. Instead of using a pen, the user was using mechanical keys. This allows him to write faster and more accurately. An additional was that a typewriter can be utilized for photocopy tasks by using a special sort of paper.
The social aspect of mechanical typewriters is amazing. It allowed the people to educate themself. If somebody has written some letters and complete books on the machine it was able, that he was trained as a writer. He was using language not only passive by consuming existing information, but in a active fashion. It was not a coincident, that mechanical typewriters were widespread used by students, in the office, by teachers and by play writers. It was a tool for improving the own mind. The interesting point is, that without such a tool it was not able to become educated as well. Writing lots of letters only with a manual pen is not possible. And if somebody hasn't written many letters, he wasn't trained in using language efficient. This was equal to missing education. So the most powerful of a typewriter was not located in the hardware of the machine, but in the effect on humans who are using the tool on a regular basis.