I do wonder if the idea of the groups of talented amateurs of yesteryear isn’t a bit over-romanticized. Whenever you see a movie or TV show set in olden times, the rag-tag musicians are always golden-voiced and virtuosos on guitar, fiddle, or banjo, in spite of the fact that most working folk wouldn’t have had the time or resources to acquire and maintain that kind of mastery, let alone the ability to get and maintain the kind of musical instruments we have access to today. It wasn’t so long ago (30 years, even) that the bounty of quality strings I can get for my classical guitar now just wasn’t there–the price was high, the selection poor, and the quality control low. I suspect that, in reality, that the campfire music back then was as bad as your average YouTuber is now. Which doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun anyway, of course.
Pretty much bang-on though, old Thamus, what?
no Dungeons & Dragons?? Look what it did to Tom Hanks!
It’s a small chart, from a much-larger book.
From an Amazon review (link in original post): A well-researched docu-comic. Covering topics such as comics, games, technology, and play, the chapters begin with a historical perspective on each subject. […]
[quote=“NathanHornby, post:34, topic:18053, full:true”]
Isn’t the 1881 one more of an observation than a panic?
[/quote]Indeed. In fact, most of these aren’t really ‘moral panics’ at all, they’re just people contemplating new technologies and worrying or speculating about possible downsides.
That’s not really surprising given that, unlike the chart’s author with his crystal-clear 20/20 hindsight, they didn’t actually have anything but speculation to go on. No facts, no data, no certainties.
And apparently the author thinks that any attitude short of blind, Gee-Whillikers-Oh!-the-Wonders-of-Modern-Progress cheerleading is worthy of mockery.
But more than a few of them are not entirely wrong
Many commenters here seem to be arguing that, yes, indeed, some of those bad things did occur, but on balance they’re outweighed by the good things that also
occurred.
Well, maybe they are (though that may be more a matter of opinion and belief than fact - cf.the Amish), but I don’t think any of those commentators were claiming that [newtech] was an unalloyed evil - just that it could have some downsides that the more enthusiastic Promoters of Progress might be ignoring or not noticing.
And that’s a long, long way from a ‘moral panic.’
I wouldn’t say that it never happened, but that smells a lot like something a yellow rag cooked up to sell papers.
You are sort-of right about audio quality going up and down with time (I’d say MP3s are not as good as records “can” be, but are much better than most records and record players ever were), but as for that diminishing the ear for live music, I don’t think it is that simple. Live music ticket sales tripled between 1999 and 2009, and my strong suspicion is that the trend is continuing. If anything, MP3s and their ease of transmission has done more good for live music than anything else the music industry has done in the last 40 years.
I imagine that sort of reaction is more like what people experienced. Combine that with the fact that there was no culture around remaining quiet in movies yet, and my guess is that a bunch of people had that moment of startle that we all get in similar situations even today, and some twitched in their chairs and people gasped or “MY WORD!” and all of a sudden some eager newsie was all, “MOTION PICTURES TOO REAL - OLD LADIES LEAP FROM SEATS DUE TO EXTREME TERROR”.
Is there such a thing as a pro-fun moral panic?
A really good party?
Oh no! Jesus Christ is here for the Rapture and he’s saying that if we don’t loosen up and have some fun we’re all going to hell! We must boogie down for the human race!
these aren’t all moralistic or anti-fun, and in fact most have an element of truth. this is a bad headline, even for linkalism.
So true. An old farmer told about the time before Television. The community use too gather and have “Fellowship meetings” every Sunday, with food, dialogue and social games, ie cards, baseball. After TV came around, that whole “Fellowship” dropped off by the way side.
That new generation (babyboomers) that grew up with TV didn’t know the difference. similar too todays gadget orientated youth.
Conditioning certainly has limitations on the human social construct. It is the human that sees beyond that construct that is the threat. Subjective vs empirical.
Yeah, it’s terrible how no one plays baseball anymore. There are four diamonds up the street from me that no one’s used for months.
If only. I’d actually convert if that happened.
Two fields in unision, my aunt saw a pack of wolves on one pitch this falll. Very Rural venue.
Actually, the Mennonites in our area love Baseball.
This timeline is about technologies, not applications.
Well, if it is (or meant to be) it’s not that consistent, is it?
Books and newspapers are applications of the printing press. Which arguably isn’t a new technology in itself, but a new application by combining several existing technologies. And so on.
