Question

Communication and Media Studies 381 - Communication History

Question:

It is conventional, in 2020, to say “Hello” when we pick up the phone. But this was not an

inevitable development. In fact, as we discussed in lecture, Alexander Graham Bell initially envisioned a

different greeting when telephone users answered their telephones. What was the greeting that Bell

proposed?

Answer 1

Initially, Alexander Graham Bell proposed that' ahoy' be taken as the standard greeting when answering a telephone, before' hello' (proposed by Thomas Edison) became popular.