Dear Baya,

      Wow! I’ve just seen a friend’s new mobile – sends and receives film and photos from all over the world, allows her to pick up e-mails, get on the web, activate any devices in her home and so on and on. Every day there are new wicked things like this. How did this gadget-filled world happen and what are the effects of all this?

     What would be great is if you could give me a simple ‘map’ showing how we got here. What have been the great turning points in communications? When did people start to write, how important is printing, what is the ‘age of mechanical reproduction’ (a long-winded phrase I recently heard in school)?

     Is the progress of technologies universal? In other words did China (which invented printing I’m told) see the same effects as countries in western Europe? Did photography affect us in the same way as television? What is the electronic or digital age? Does one medium always replace another, for instance will books be destroyed by tablet computers? So far it doesn’t seem to have happened, radio is still popular and we still go to the cinema despite television.

     Any practical advice on how to cope with this tidal wave of information and communication technologies would be welcome. There are times when I feel so stressed by my mobile phone, TV, computers and other gadgets that I feel like throwing them all in the river. How can we use their power without finding our privacy and concentration destroyed?

     I hope I’m not adding to the information overload for you by sending you these letters and digital pictures. At least we’re actually writing letters to each other – a pretty ancient and basic technology!

Lots of love,