Nowadays, everybody has some kind of portable device such as a cell phone or a computer and often even both. Although, this was not always the case for human civilization. Communication used to be a lot more difficult between vast distances. Earliest forms of history include lots of different visual cues such as smoke signals or using flags and shutters to express ideas, but these have an incredibly limited number of characters and can often be misconstrued due to a potential analog side effect of noise.

The first digital method of long distance communication is known as the telegraph. This device using one signal that can stretch across far distances allows for a beeping sound to be transfered across the landscape. This allowed for the creation of a language that can use a series of short and longs beeps alongside silence to create words and send messages hundreds of miles away. This language is refered to as morse code and was the basis for early digital communication. Since the language allows for a finite number of numbers and characters it can be classified as a digital process and minimizes potential noise since beeps can typically be easily identified. 

There are trade offs when it comes to communicating with something through the telegraph. One of these issues is how long it takes to send a message across a telegraph. With each word taking a series of beeps and pauses it can take minutes just to send one single sentence. Additionally, the construction cost of the original cable along with the time it takes to construct can be a bit straning and difficult to undergo, especially in a under developed United States. Overall, this invention was very pivitol in advancing the world into the digital age, but still had its flaws and drawbacks.