The underlining argument in his essay perceives the notion that the telegraph '...permitted for the first time the effective separation of communication from transportation...'.
However, he also remarks that whilst the telegraph was a watershed in communication, it only built on previous frameworks and infrastructure such as foot paths, '...[it] twisted and altered but did not displace patterns of connection formed by natural geography'(p. 204).
[citation needed][3] One of the most significant effects that the telegraph had was that it was able to restructure of time and space, in relation to both social and commercial life.
James Carey proficiently explores this concept throughout this chapter, detailing the ways in which the telegraph initiated changes in how one communicates across distances and over time.
[5] James Carey focuses heavily on the significant changes that the telegraph has made to society, in relation to the diminishing constraints of space on communication.
The “telegraph made prose lean and unadorned”,[6] and subsequently separated the readers previously personal connection with the author.
A new social awareness was apparent, as individuals were able to easily communicate with people over vast distances, who may have very different beliefs or ways of living to their own.