Did you hear? Space and time were annihilated by the telegraph in 1868. I’d forgotten too. Don’t worry though, it seems like everyone is in the same boat. As Vincent Mosco makes crystal clear in the fifth chapter of The Digital Sublime, “Every wave of new technology […] has brought with it declarations of the end.” Chapter five raises the question of how society seems to forget the myths generated by advertisers. Many accept the claims without realizing that very similar statements were made about other products in the past. Obviously, advertisers were wrong when they claimed that the radio would turn every home into an extension of Harvard. And yet, society still gobbles up their claims about the next big thing. Advertisers have been wrong so many times, and commonly exaggerate claims far out of proportions, so why do people still listen?
This collective amnesia of society has happened many times in the past, and is already happening again. Myths are being created, consumed and forgotten every day. Currently, the myths concern Web 2.0, smart phones and tablets. Marketers claim that these technologies bring us together with their powers of mass interactivity. Consumers quickly forget how downright magical all previous technology once was. In the case of electricity, its novelty wore off in a decade. One arc light drew crowds in 1880, but after five years, it took a fully lit mansion to impress the masses. In ten years, electric signs were developed and everything else had become "normal". In time, each development loses its allure and fades (in the case of electricity, literally) “into the woodwork.”
On its website today, WIRED magazine carried a feature that showed vintage posters, advertising the latest technology of their time. One poster from 1935 shows a young woman with a light bulb. The text reads: “Buy light, not just lamps”. In this time period, buying a light bulb meant bringing the magic of light into your home. In today’s age, residential lighting is concerned with how you display the light. The average consumer cares little about the bulb itself, and more about the fixture.
A poster from 1958 shows a French family enjoying their television. Most striking of all is the text. Translated, it reads: “The evenings are pleasant with a television, the voice of its master.” The entire family appears to be enjoying the device, with their young child gesturing realistically along with the TV. The most interesting is the woman shown in the image. She is shown in a pose that implies she is thinking about what is on the television. This is somewhat different from the cultural standard of the time where women were to believe and do what they were told and not waste their time thinking. This poster displays a transition in the role of the wife from housekeeper to independent thinker.
The myths created about these wondrous devices and technologies all serve to generate a public view of the object. At the time of their development, new devices need exaggerated advertising in order to convince people they need one. For example, advertisers told consumers that to own a telephone is a moral obligation. If you didn’t buy the product, the ads implied you were an inconsiderate husband, a bad citizen, or uninformed. By making it seem that everyone has no choice but to own their product, advertisers were able to make a killing. The problem is that this still happens today.
Link to WIRED magazine's vintage posters feature:
No comments:
Post a Comment