Now listen to part of a lecture from a sociology class.
(male professor) Now, the invention of the telephone was revolutionary. It was a much easier and faster way of communicating than anything else available at the time. However, when the telephone first became widely available, towards the end of the 19th century, only businesses used telephones because businesses realized how the telephone could benefit them, how it could help them be more productive.But, a lot of people in the general public didn't think the phone should be used for personal communication. Some people didn't like to listen to someone's voice without being able to see them. Also, a lot of people thought that it was rude to call someone on the telephone instead of visit them in person. They missed the sense of personal connection they got from meeting someone.However, as we all know, people gradually changed their minds about the telephone. It took about 30 years but eventually most homes came to have telephones and everyone came to depend on them. Talking to someone you couldn't see began to seem more normal. Friends began to call each other just to chat, just for fun. And after everyone agreed on certain rules of politeness, such as not calling someone late at night, no one considered it rude anymore to make personal phone calls.
Using the example of the telephone, explain the concept of cultural lag.
The period of time before which people struggle to adapt to a new technology is called cultural lag. And the professor illustrates this with the example of telephone. When telephone first came out, it was only popular with business people because they realized the benefit of telephone. The general public, however, didn't like it because they either felt strange to call someone without seeing them or thought it was rude to talk to someone without visiting them in person. It took 30 years for the ordinary people to change their mind and began to incorporate telephone into their life, calling their friends with telephone for fun and making rules about using it. So the 30-year delay for the public acceptance of telephone is what we call as cultural lag. Also, they no longer thought it was rude to call as they agreed to some rules of politeness, like not to call anyone in the middle of the night. (149 words)
