phd Isaac Newton / Writing on the wall

In "Writing on the Wall", Standage takes us on an interesting ride through centuries of human social interaction, and presents a great deal of evidence for his argument that what we think is revolutionary and new has been with us always in different forms.  In the first half of the book, he tells us about papyrus scrolls in ancient Rome, “viral” ideas from Martin Luther, Tudor-era poems that were exchanged as gossip and self-expression, regulation and censorship efforts in 17th century Europe, and the cultural repercussions of the new and disturbing “coffee house" phenomenon.

I’d like to leave this one open-ended, and let you each choose something in this section that intrigues or amuses you, and tell us why.  Do you find the analogy to modern social media persuasive?