Davison TJ

Throughout history, different groups, cultures and civilizations have adopted different means of transportation and communication. The innovation and adaption of these various forms of communication have come from a human need for quicker and more efficient communication between groups and civilizations. One particular means of transportation was the pony express, which was used as a postal service in the United States from 1860-1861. The Pony Express was a interconnected set of horseback relays that connected the East and West coasts of the United States. This new means of communication was significantly more efficient that the previous means of sending mail across the country.

During the early 1860’s the United States was expanding all the way to the East Coast so there was a high demand for reliable mail service. The current means of transportation was very unstructured and unreliable so the United States adapted what was called the Pony Express. Since the country was expanding so quickly, communication had to be drastically improved to keep up with the growing culture. The Pony Express is a perfect example of the development of information technology to keep up with either the society or culture.

The Pony express, which was founded by William H Russel, William B Waddell and Alexander Major in 1860, was an interconnected pony relay consisting of over 80 stations. These stations, which would typically be 20 or so miles apart, would typically have a select group of experienced riders and horses. Each rider, in a single day, would typically travel 250 miles on different horses. This method of communication was much quicker than previous methods because the time to go across the country went down to as little as 10 days. Furthermore, this offered more jobs to the public and helped the country grow as a whole.

A major role of information technology is the impact that it has on the civilizations or cultures that it is part of. Thus, the Pony Express is a great example of this because of its secondary effect, which enhanced the economy by creating numerous jobs. Since there was 80 stations, more men were needed to work these stations as well as work on the horses. As time began to progress, the system was recognized as effective since travel time was cut from months to days so it began to expand. The Pony Express had a substantial positive impact on the civilizations since it provided a extremely fast method to communicate across the country.

As any technology does, the Pony Express had its flaws. Since much of the terrain was unexplored, there were complications along the road. One of the major problems was riders being attacked by Native Americans. However, this was not a major concern of the Pony Express as it was still very efficient compare to previous methods.

Works Cited

http://ponyexpress.org/history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express