Random Times When Everyone Freaked Out About New Technology in History (9 items)

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  (#4) Even the Inventor of the Radio Criticized It in 1940

  The fear that surrounded the invention of the radio is particularly interesting. While all the items on this list share a common denominator—being feared by the general population, to which radio was no stranger either—the radio was feared by its own inventor, as well. Guglielmo Marconi believed he had perfected “wireless technology” back in 1895 but more than two decades would go by before Marconi’s technology would be used to broadcast to the masses, rather than to just one other individual.

  This is what made Marconi second guess his technological contribution. In an undelivered speech given to Sir James Irvine and later referred to in an article published by The Herald in 1940, Marconi asked himself if he had “done the world good” or just “added a menace?” Marconi explained that he only intended for his invention to improve communication between ships at sea. Even he never saw the true potential the radio introduced in terms of broadcasting content across an entire region.
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  (#3) Spectator Magazine Bashed the Telegraph in the Late 1800s

  When the telegraph was first introduced, critics insisted the new technology would ruin the poetry of the English language. The widespread belief was that by encouraging people to communicate in short, incomplete sentences, the telegraph would eventually train people to always speak in sporadic, choppy thoughts. Criticism of the telegraph was so widespread that it eventually took center stage in a popular magazine of the time. Back in 1889, Spectator magazine released an editorial warning against the “constant diffusion of statements in snippets,” while also observing the “peculiar conversational abbreviations” between two men who were communicating via the telegraph. The same critics would surely be horrified by emojis and chatspeak.
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  (#5) The Television Became Even Scarier Than the Radio

  Everything people feared about the radio was amplified with the introduction of the television in 1927. There was a fear that radio would turn people away from reading or having intimate conversations with one another; the television received that very same critique. Media historian Ellen Wartella told Slate that critics of the television insisted it would “hurt radio, conversation, reading, and the patterns of family living and result in the further vulgarization of American culture.”

  Poor television was receiving backlash from both sides. Those who feared what technology might do to human interaction were opposed to the television and those who were optimistic about new technology, but had already invested in the world of radio, were afraid the new medium would tarnish their investments.
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  (#2) The New York Times Attacked the Telephone in the Late 1800s

  We now live in a world where five minutes without a cellphone seems like an eternity, so it’s hard to imagine that at one point many people wanted nothing to do with telephones at all.

  When telephones were introduced in the late 1800s, the New York Times was quick to attack. The paper’s critique of the technology included the suggestion that telephones would only be used to invade people’s privacy. One contributor even went so far as to say that the telephone introduced society to a slippery slope where we would soon be “nothing but transparent heaps of jelly to each other.” Other attacks on the telephone insisted that it would make society lazy and anti-social and some even claimed the new technology would be used to communicate with the dead.
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  (#9) 2015 New York Times Article Led Some to Believe Tech Wearables Cause Cancer

  Wearable technology is constantly being promoted as the future, but before the first smart watch even hit the shelves there was fear that wearable tech would have a negative impact on our health. Once again, the New York Times led the charge in criticizing new technology, publishing an article that seemed to suggest smart watches could cause health issues like cancer. Slate’s Phil Plait was quick to respond and point out that there is still no reliable evidence that suggests wearable technology causes any form of cancer - or any other illness for that matter. The New York Times amended the article with multiple editor's notes, as well as a headline change, admitting the original ("Could Wearable Computers Be as Harmful as Cigarettes?") "went too far in suggesting any such comparison."
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  (#1) Everyone Believed Trains Would Rip You Apart in 1825

  The human body can only travel so fast before a person becomes fatally injured. While this is true, the speeds needed to harm the human body are far faster than 30 miles per hour. Back in 1825, nobody knew that. When the Stockton-Darlington Railway opened that year, people insisted trains were an unsafe mode of transportation for people. Cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell explained to the Wall Street Journal that critics of trains believed people would fall victim to gruesome deaths if they hopped on board. Some people believed the body would simply melt, while others insisted limbs would be torn from riders' bodies. Others warned women’s uteruses would fly out if they reached speeds of 50 miles per hour.

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