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π™ΏπšŽπšœπšœπš’πš–πš’πšœπšπšœ π™°πš›πšŒπš‘πš’πšŸπšŽ Weekly Roundup

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π™ΏπšŽπšœπšœπš’πš–πš’πšœπšπšœ π™°πš›πšŒπš‘πš’πšŸπšŽ Weekly Roundup

The Social Network of Tin-Cans and Telegrams

Pessimists Archive
Jan 27, 2021
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π™ΏπšŽπšœπšœπš’πš–πš’πšœπšπšœ π™°πš›πšŒπš‘πš’πšŸπšŽ Weekly Roundup

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πŸ₯«γ€°πŸ₯« The Social Network of Tin-Cans and Telegrams

The young love to fraternize; in the 2000s it was Facebook, in the 1920s it was telegrams and in the 1880s it was… tin-can telephones. When older generations pick up on popular new communication mediums, they liken them to a strange new habit or worse, an addiction.

Source: Telegrams (1920s) TinCans (1880s) πŸ—ž

The thing is… socializing, fraternizing, conversing is as natural and β€˜addictive’ as breathing or sleeping: it is a core human need. Why is communication good and healthy, but telecommunication bad and addictive?


πŸ“» Radio Laggards

A fun example from 1927 of laggards (those at the far end of the diffusion of innovation graph) finally giving in and embracing the radio after initial resistance to it:

Source πŸ—ž

β€œThose who β€œwouldn’t have one the things in the house” are now getting them in as soon as possible”


πŸ’‰ Not So Big Pharma

Profiteering has long been used by anti-vaxxers as a way to demonize those manufacturing vaccines. In 2021 it is big Pharma; Pfizer, GSK etc. In 1888 it was individual doctors, who were accused of promoting the method so as to make more money by seeing more patients.

Source πŸ—ž

πŸŽ‚ Happy Birthday Mosaic

The first commercial web browser turned 28 last week. Mosaic launched in 1993, a year later The Guardian ran a piece on the β€˜net backlash.’ The critiques of today are not new and legit problems less unforeseen than assumed.

Source πŸ—ž

πŸͺ¦ Too Little Too Late

1904 article on man who let his family take vaccine first to see what happened, he got small-pox and died. Technophobia kills.

Source πŸ—ž

πŸͺΆ Tweet of the Week

Twitter avatar for @PessimistsArc
Pessimists Archive @PessimistsArc
A history of @nytimes on too much media consumption: πŸ“± 2021: too much screen? πŸ“Ί 1956: too much TV? πŸ“» 1938: too much radio? πŸ“– 1898: too much reading? (Via our substack pessimistsarchive.substack.com/p/too-much-too…)
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2:05 PM βˆ™ Jan 19, 2021
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