4 ms·

I wonder if people 80-100 years ago were as hysteric about radio and TV as we are today about social media.

• eeZah7Ux 9y ago
  They weren't. Television and especially radio were both cherished sources of reasonably reliable information in the beginning.
  • dragonwriter 9y ago
    No, they weren't. They became, over time, accepted sources of trusted and emotionally engaging information, but IIRC studies many decades ago showed that—controlling for consumption of other news media like newspapers—increased consumption of news content from either or both broadcast media was associated with decreased knowledge of current events. They were never sources of reliable information (and, yes, from early on there were negative reactions against the mass acceptance, just as there are today for social media.)
• wu-ikkyu 9y ago
  You may be interested in the writings of Marshall McLuhan. He was a philosopher and analyst of media who wrote about the effects of television (and all other forms of media) and gained popularity in the 60's and 70's. One point he noted was how instantaneous global communication via television (and later the internet) enabled terrorists to hijack global attention: >Terrorism is an invention through which any two armed people can take over an entire industry, namely television, with the eager cooperation of its owners. -Matshall McLuhan
• quickthrower2 9y ago
  Social media amplifies the hysteria. E.g. us lot on HN which itself is social media of a sort.
• vlehto 9y ago
  Has that been shown false? Especially TV does not seem like a thing that promotes mental health.