Tom Standage's book, The Victorian Internet, examines the impact of the telegraph on personal life, business, and politics during the late 19th century. The telegraph was society's first experience with high-popular instant communication, leading to social changes and forecasts that are remarkably similar to those claimed for today's Internet.

Some popular predictions never came true:

• The telegraph will result in the death of printed newspapers (pps. 147-148)
  
  
• Instant communication will foster a unity among mankind that will make wars impossible (163)

Telegraphy also lead to major cultural changes that parallel today's Interent explosion:

• Explosive Technology Growth: "In the six years between 1846 and 1852, the telegraph network grew 600 fold.(59) Within 30 years, there were over 650,000 miles of wire, 30,000 miles of submarine cable, and 20,000 towns and villages on-line. (102)
  
  
• Information Overload: "The Alpena Echo, a small newspaper in Michigan, cut off its daily telegraph service in protest. According to a contemporary account, this was because 'it could not tell why the telegraph company caused it to be send a full account of a flood in Shanghai, a massacre in Calcutta, a sailor fight in Bombay, ...'" (163)
  
  
• Governmental Secrecy: "For years it had been customary in Britain for news of departing ships to be reported as they headed off to foreign conflicts; after all, the news could travel no faster than the ships themselves. But the telegraph meant that whatever information was made available in one country was soon known overseas.(155)
  
  
• Increased Pace of Business: "Messages between New York and Chicago, which had previously taken a month to arrive, could now be delivered almost instantly; national and global markets were galvanized by the increasing flow of information. Any business that wanted to stay competitive had no choice but to embrace the new technology. (165)
  
  
• Flattened Business Structures: "Direct transactions between producers and customers were made possible without having to go through middlemen.... Suppliers could keep smaller inventories, since stock could be ordered and replenished quickly. (167)
  
  
• Virtual Communities: The telegraph operators were members of a closed, exclusive community. They had their own customs and vocabulary, ... an on-line community encompassing thousands of people, very few of whom ever met face-to-face." (134-135).