The year that I was born, 1957, saw the publication of an important study of American culture, 'The Hidden Persuaders' by Vance Packard. It was part of a slow turning of our society to an academic based outlook of life, as demonstrated by the relatively new sciences of sociology and psychology. After the Second World War, the GI Bill filled American universities and colleges with ex-military personnel, and 'The Hidden Persuaders' was a new type of best seller. It wasn't the first of its type, but it was an important examination of some of the societal changes occurring in a newly affluent culture.
Probing examinations of America dated back to at least 'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair, a book so gruesome about the meat packing industry in Chicago that it could turn Frank Purdue into a vegetarian. After the Red Scare that immediately followed the Allied victory but ideological divide, resulting in '257 card carrying members of the Communist Party working in the Defense Department' as well as blacklisting in many industries, the next target, surprisingly, was comic books. Fredric Wertham's 'Seduction of the Innocents' looked at the influence of horror comics at young readers, resulting in Congressional Hearings.
Admittedly, this was more witch hunt than sociology. Wertham was offended by anything outside of his taste and managed to exercise social engineering to surprisingly great effect, especially when he teamed up with Estes Kefauver, a Democratic Senator who went after everybody from organized crime and big pharmacy (the good fights) to Betty Page's girlie magazines and comic books (the bad). There were some pretty grim stuff coming especially from EC Comics, and William Gaines was grilled on the floor of the Senate worse than a Mafia kingpin. The good news was that he switched over to satire and created perhaps the greatest cultural force of the 1960's, Mad Magazine, as a direct retaliation.
There was a commercial incentive for a publisher to release exposes of society, and Vance Packard filled it. However, his book was a more studied and sober look at advertising. More specifically, it looked at how the advertisers collected and used data to manipulate consumers. It was simultaneous popular and cutting edge, and it lay bare the working of Madison Avenue. He followed it up with 'The Status Seekers', a study on societal pressures in the working environment, and 'The Waste Makers', which was the first examination of planned obsolescence in manufactured goods.
'The Hidden Persuaders' was a big deal during the height of Happy Days America, and was quickly followed by other seminal works, such as 'Silent Spring' by Rachel Carson, which gave birth directly to the environmental movement, and 'Unsafe at Any Speed' by Ralph Nader, which started the push for consumer safety. The other big sociological writer during this time was Marshall McLuhan, who took apart technology to try and understand it from a strictly academic approach. Eventually McLuhan arrived at 'the medium is the message', his fifteen minutes of fame assured. In the middle of all this, we had Dwight D. Eisenhower giving his farewell address as President, warning us about the 'Military Industrial Complex'. These were heady times indeed, and change was examined carefully.
Some of this was brand new, some of it wasn't, but it was all packaged in an air of academic trappings that made the contents be taken seriously. For instance, Smedley Butler had written 'War is a Racket' in 1935, detailing the same Military Industrial forces in Damon Runyon-esque prose. He had been a Brigadier General in the Marine Corps, fighting in every battle between 1895 and 1930, so he knew what he was talking about. And the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated American institutes of higher learning during such ethically challenged operations a MK-ULTRA. No one was innocent and it could be hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, but at least they were studying the changes happening.
That was the during the period from 1952 until 1965, which by today's standards might as well be the Jurassic Age. Change is happening at such an accelerated pace, adopted before any research can be done on societal effects. You don't need a crystal ball any more to see the damage being done by newly enacted lifestyle technology. Just look at the last Presidential election and the possible influence of fake social media. The cat is already out of the bag and there is no turning back from our brave new world.
I'm as guilty as anyone else when it comes to using social media, but I have to ask - where do you think Facebook gets its value from? What do they sell that makes their stock so special? The not-so shocking answer is you, or more specifically your life data. And you give it to them willingly, in great detail, and you update it every time you turn on your electronic devices and make a choice. Were you really surprised that they sold you out to the first bidder who was willing to throw their ethics out the window?
All the mechanism for this strip mining of your demographics have been there in plain sight. What has been missing are the warnings, like 'The Hidden Persuaders' of old. Your job and your friends demand that you use adapt the new technology. Your sex life depends on it. You become so used to long distance discussions that you can't tell bullshit from the truth any more because you never look any one in the eyes when communicating with them. Every piece of information is presented to you in the same breathtaking way that it becomes impossible to filter out the important from the trivial.
In our modern world, we all carry around GPS devices that can track our every move, not to mention our every purchase and every contact with another human being. There is no value anymore to being out of touch or anonymous. We spend our lived branding ourselves just like a corporate entity, trying to separate ourselves from the pack by doing exactly what everyone else does. And we WANT to do this because of societal pressure while paying no attention to how social media makes us more dogmatic and less social. It is a downward spiral and we are all clinging to the side of the toilet bowl.
Where are the Vance Parkards and Rachel Carsons of today? Where are the studies on how cell phone use affects pre-teen interaction? How has simple science become so politicized, and you have to pick sides if you want to accept global warming or even evolution? This is the world that we wanted, and frankly you can have it. Give me convenience or give me death.
Like I said at the start, I'm turning into a curmudgeon. I have strong anti-technology feelings. I actively hate social media and have successfully avoided it so far, despite whatever appearances this blog may give. I look for the studies about cell phone usage, and I see nothing, just as I see nothing critical about social media. And I try very hard not to see a conspiracy.
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