This editorial cartoon shows how people were skeptical about Gutenberg’s printing press. “This contraption is going to change everything,” one person says, and the other person responds, “You jest! People will never give up their illuminated manuscripts!” It’s an interesting cartoon because it shows how anxious and reluctant people get when it comes to new ways of communication even if it’s revolutionary, like the printing press was.

The cartoon does a good job of portraying the importance of one of the great periods of communication: the Enlightenment Period (subtitle: The Enlightenment (1600-1800 CE). The Enlightenment Period was a period where the accessibility of information became emphasized. Before the printing press existed, information was difficult to obtain for everyday people. However, once the printing press was invented, information became more available for everyday people through books and newspapers.

The shift in communication during the Enlightenment Period is similar to shifts that we see in our everyday lives. Many people are anxious about social media and the internet today. Also, like the people in the cartoon who didn’t understand the long-term impact of the printing press, people today still don’t understand the long-term impact of the change in communication that we’re currently experiencing. Thus, the cartoon reminds us that we’re always in a cycle of change in the way that we communicate, and we won’t understand how consequential these advances are until we look back in retrospect many years from now.

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