A Brief Visual History of Information Access: From Word of Mouth to Wi-Fi

How did humans go from telling stories around a fire to doomscrolling under the duvet? As a historical illustrator and cartoonist, I love exploring how everyday life has changed over time. In this comic, I’ve taken a light-hearted look at how people have accessed and shared information across different eras, from the Stone Age to today’s digital deluge.

History isn't just about wars and kings, it’s also about how ideas travelled, how people talked, and how knowledge was passed on. Whether it was gossip in the fields or group chats in ancient Greece, we’ve always found ways to connect, question, and (sometimes) overshare.

This illustrated timeline is a fun, simplified journey through oral storytelling, sacred scripts, printing presses, mass media, and finally, the smartphone overload we all know so well; where each panel showcases the tools, rituals, and rhythms of communication in a different era, all part of our complex, multifaceted relationship with information.

Staying true to the sentiment of the comic, feel free to share this with a friend if it makes you smile, or just sit down and think for a moment about how far we’ve come (and how similar we still are).