The Inevitability of Techno Moral Panics: But Think of the Children
15th September 2012
For years, we’ve been fascinated with the general phenomenon of technology moral panics, and how we see them all the time around new forms of technology. Video games destroying children’s brains. The internet leading kids into a life of porn. These things go back many, many years. In the 15th century there was a technopanic about the printing press (“He who ceases from zeal for writing because of printing is no true lover of the Scriptures.”) In the 19th century, people were told that traveling on trains above 20mph would asphyxiate passengers. A hundred years ago, movies and telephones were declared evil (movies: “This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood” and telephones: “Does the telephone make men more active or more lazy? Does [it] break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?”).
Assuming, of course, that they haven’t been aborted first.
September 16th, 2012 at 12:38
Interesting that most of the concerns centered around Moral Depravity. Some opposition to the widespread introduction of the automobile was that it would provide unchaparoned spaces where teens could Do It.
Seems the preoccupation with–and fear of–*gasp* SEX! has a venerable history among the conservatives of the world.