Networks in motion: The alliances of information communication technologies and mobility technologies during the 1918 influenza pandemic

Abstract

In this article, we turn back to the 1918 influenza pandemic to throw light on the alliances of information communication technologies and technologies of mobility (such as the car) during the pandemic. We examine newspaper articles, technical publications, and other historical texts to demonstrate that, despite the fact that mobile technologies—such as cellular phones—did not exist during the 1918 pandemic, the telephone and mobility technology nonetheless formed alliances as networks in motion, or social moments in which risk and reward are calculated not simply by the ability to move, but rather the ability to move, while remaining connected, revealing insight into early cultural formations that share similarities and differences with the use of modern mobile media and mobility technologies during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.