Explain the significance of the printing press to society during the late fifteenth century and afterward

The printing press originated in Germany. It first took part in allowing for monasteries to copy bibles on a large scale as copies used to be made elegantly by hand. The former process that produced copies of books were too expensive for people of average wealth to afford. The printing press allowed more people to afford books due their "mass" production. This in turn increased literacy rates, since more people could now afford books and wished to read the bible and other popular works. Later on the printing press contributed to the formation of the United States of America as it allowed for important intellectuals to rapidly spread information about opposition to Britain. One such piece mass produced that is given some credit for the most immediate cause to the Revolution was Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Later on the printing press also became important as newspapers and magazines became popular along with yellow journalism which was mass produced due to the printing press. Basically throughout history it was the first form of social media which plagued society with information that caused wars and spread information rapidly from new scientific advancements and such. In fact the printing press mass producing journals, newspaper, and magazines can be directly related to the increase in world literacy, Revolutionary War, Spanish American War, WW1, WW2, and many many more events