Social media, circa 1945

We talk about the "revolution" of social media, and yet, if you peruse the archives of any small town paper from the 19th or 20th centuries, you'll find social media has been around much longer than we give it credit.

In this clip from the Feb. 22, 1945 Arlington Times, we have reports from Oso, Darrington, Cicero, Greenwood and Silvana. Previous pages include "news" from Lakewood, Bryant, Victoria and Edgecomb. Some of these places still live on, some are ghosts of what they once were; and others, like Greenwood and Victoria, have faded into obscurity.

Note too the familiar family names -- Giebel, Armstrong, Wangsmo, Hershaw, Husby.

1945's version of social media may have not had the immediacy or interactive qualities of our electronic age, but remember that life wasn't quite as speed-of-light as it is today -- and yet, this six page edition of the Times is crammed full of the same kind of news we share with each other today via Facebook, Google+ and other virtual communities.

Here in Arlington, the adage properly applies: "The more things change, the more they remain the same."