Citation

Burgess EW. Am. J. Sociol. 1928; 34(1): 117-129.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1928, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/214629

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Transportation, inasmuch as it promotes social contacts, will be considered, for the purposes of this article, as falling under the devices of communication. Modern society is being formed through communication; therefore changes in the facilities and in the use of the means of communication should afford indices of social change. The figures for the last twenty-five years for the United States on the growth in the facilities of railroads, electric railways, automobiles, aviation, land telegraph and ocean cable, the telephone, the radio, books and pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals are compared with population increase. Since the United States has led all other countries of the world in the popular utilization of these different instruments of communication, the conclusion may be drawn that the tempo of social change is greater here than elsewhere. There are, however, wide differences within the United States in the use of the agencies of communication. This suggests the value of a study of the incidence of modern civilization correlated with the increase in the number and use of the devices of communication.