This chapter focuses on how we humans have made meaning in three historical moments. We will start with what we call ‘first languages’, the languages used before we had writing as we know it. We will then discuss some consequences of the development of writing, which began about five millennia ago, and how this culture of writing intensified with the mass application of printing after the fifteenth century and continues into modern times as more and more of the world’s peoples learn to read and write. Thirdly, we will consider aspects of the new cultures of meaning-making that emerged during the twentieth century, supported first by photographic technologies and more recently by technologies for the electronic production and distribution of meaning.