Ongoing History Daily: How radio changed the home.

With all our technology, it’s easy to ignore and forget that we’re only about a hundred years deep into having music and audio information delivered directly to us. Radios started to come into wide use in the 1920s and their effect on home life was profound.

First, news, sports, culture, and trends were instantly available to large populations. You did not have to leave your home to hear artists perform. News came faster over the radio than it did with newspapers. People began to stay home listening to the radio instead of going out. And people who were once largely isolated from the world suddenly had a connection.

These stories and more are told in a new book called Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home by Beaty Ruebens. Fascinating stuff if you want to see how technology can alter society.