A History of Media Technology Scares

jamesswift writes "Vaughan Bell at Slate has written an interesting article on the centuries old phenomenon of hysterical suspicion surrounding new media and the technologies that enable them. 'A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind. The media now echo his concerns with reports on the unprecedented risks of living in an "always on" digital environment. It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565.' The best line comes near then end: 'The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is treated with suspicion.'"

Comments

Re:Good quote

[Monkeedude1212]

I Can't imagine a technology that I would ever be suspicious of though, but then again I'm a nerd.

Really?

Nothing at all? I'm only 21 and I'm already suspicious of half the patent filings that get reported on here.

Re:Enjoyed the Marijuana Story

[Daniel Dvorkin]

I've worked those hundred-hour weeks in a busy hospital; trust me, it does a lot more damage to your ability to take care of patients than a puff or two would do. People who are that tired -- and I don't care how tough you are, by the end of it, you are that tired -- display some of the worst aspects of alcohol and drug intoxication, without any of the relaxed happy feeling which is why people like to get drunk and stoned in the first place.

Re:feeble argument

[Ltap]

Exactly. Both Mark Twain and Einstein made disparaging remarks about schooling, but it was a different issue - not an "overload of information", but that they tend to stifle original thought.

Re:Enjoyed the Marijuana Story

[bluefoxlucid]

Stoned people seem to lose certain asepcts of their personality.

What parts of their personalities would this be? Because I can't say I've observed this outside of state-sponsored anti-drug propaganda.

For what it's worth, I had a friend that was amused because he smoked some pot and then spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to turn on a Playstation 2, then smoked another and went off and played with a balloon that was SO FUCKING COOL for another hour or so. The drugs can be sort of unpredictable... so hell with that. Sleep loss we know is bad, so hell with that too; but at least I'm decently able to estimate what's going to go wrong while I'm telling you to stay the hell away from me.

Re:Good quote

[bluefoxlucid]

I'm not functional with an analog clock. It has to be digital. It's like driving a car, it has to be manual or I can't drive it safely; can you imagine me driving while doing slide-rule calculations in my head to estimate what time it might very well be, gauging by the vague display that seems to give different answers as to the current point chronology readout depending on the exact 360x360 6 point defined spatial coordinate I examine it from?

"Amusing Ourselves to Death"

[MightyMait]

I'll have to RTFA since I've been reading Neil Postman's 1985 book "Amusing Ourselves to Death", which is a pre-WWW musing about how TV is changing public discourse in America.