Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three whose latest “tech panic” involved sending an email on 2% laptop battery. Phew! What a rush!
5 min read
Let’s play a quick game. I am going to describe a technology, and you tell me what it is.
Kids are spending hours on this technology every day. A study of hundreds of 6- to 16-year-olds in the Journal of Pediatrics finds that many are addicted to it. There are also concerns about how this technology may interfere with social connection and the development of empathy, and may increase exposure to violence and sexual content. Some evidence links it to anxiety and other mental health problems, yet parents feel powerless to stop it.
Got your answer? That’s correct! It is…the household radio. Exactly what you guessed, right?
In the 1920s and 1930s, ownership of personal radios saw exponential growth. By the late 1930s, kids in New York, for example, were spending between 1 and 3 hours per day listening to them. That article in the Journal of Pediatrics? It was published in 1941.
Even more interesting, a near-identical description of the technology and society’s concerns about it could be applied to just about any new media you can imagine. Social media, of course, but also: the Internet, video games, television, and comic books. Even novels were blamed for “reading addiction” in the 18th century, and the act of writing itself was a source of concern in Ancient Greece.1
So, what’s going on here?
These examples come from an article by University of Cambridge psychologist Amy Orben.2 It was first published in 2020, but I think it’s worth revisiting today. The name of the article? The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics.
It is not (as far as I know).
Those familiar with Greek mythology may remember the story of Sisyphus, who was condemned by Hades for all eternity to roll a heavy boulder up a hill. Each time Sisyphus got close to the top of the hill, the boulder would roll back down, and he’d be forced to start over again. Kind of a bummer!
So what does that have to do with technology?
Orben argues that “technology panics”—periods of intense societal concern about a new technology—operate according to a similarly problematic cycle. Each new technological advance raises remarkably similar worries and questions, which are then fed by public conversation, scientists, and policymakers, until a new technology comes around and the whole cycle starts again.
The cycle Orben describes proceeds in four steps. After the introduction and fast adoption of a new technology, the following steps take place:
Society becomes highly concerned about the effects of a given technology, especially on kids. Some of this can be attributed to “moral panic”—the perception that a person or thing is challenging societal norms and values3—though often technological panics are broader than that. Concerns4 fall into familiar categories:
Loss of social connection
Addiction, “mania,” or overuse
Exposure to violence
Exposure to sex
Loss of empathy
Politicians take on the cause of “fighting” the new technology, in many cases boosting their public image—but also, potentially, deflecting from thornier issues (e.g., structural inequity, educational quality). As part of this, the work of finding solutions to the negative effects of the technology is outsourced to scientists.
Scientists take up the challenge, and research follows a similar trajectory for each new technology. The research “starts from scratch” to investigate many of the same questions, beginning with broad, causal questions (“do smartphones cause depression?”) and moving toward more specific (“do certain uses of smartphones, among certain groups of children, cause depression?”). Ultimately, scientists do not reach consensus in part due to a lack of shared, underlying theory.
How does the panic end, if research never comes to a consensus and political debate continues?
The answer: a new technology emerges, and we all move on.
When it comes to social media, I believe we’re approaching step four. We have yet to come to a societal and academic consensus, and yet, it’s only a matter of time before we move on. Why? Because AI is here, and it is the latest target of our concern.
When people learn of this cycle of technology panics, they tend to fall into two camps.
On the one side, we have people who see the cycle as evidence that we’re all just overreacting. The technology in question is fine, there’s nothing to worry about, and can you believe we were so worried about the radio?! We turned out great!
On the other side, we have people who argue that this time really is different. We are seeing real problems related to the technology, and there are more coming in the future. This technology is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and we cannot dismiss the challenges it will bring.
In my career thus far, I’ve spent time operating somewhere between both camps, as I’d imagine many of us have. How do we make sense of these different views? When it comes to AI’s effects on our well-being, and that of our kids, is this all just one giant overreaction? Or do we really have something to worry about?
My current view is that, strange as it sounds, both are true.
On the one hand, we need to understand how we fall into familiar patterns of fear and overreaction. It’s important to investigate what these cycles of concern say about us, as much as the technology, so we can rightsize those fears in the context of everything else impacting our lives.
At the same time, it would be ridiculous to dismiss all concerns about new technologies—and AI is no exception. New technologies often do have serious problems that need to be addressed. They are transformative. They have, and will, change our lives, and those of our children.
When it comes to AI, I’m starting to believe that everything will be different this time…just like it always is.
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About the act of writing things down, Socrates apparently said: “In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing…instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own…You provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing.” I hate to say it, but kind of feels like if you replace “writing” with “AI,” you could easily come across this statement in a Substack piece about cognitive offloading.
Highly recommend reading this article (The Sisyphean Cycle of Tech Panics) in full. You can find it here. Actually, while you’re at it, highly recommend reading everything Amy Orben has written in full. It might take you awhile, but you can get started right here.
Orben notes: “Moral panics are most often focused on ‘The Other’: a group that does not constitute the main powerholders of society (e.g., children, immigrants, or women). There are concerns that these groups might become insane or aggressive or be otherwise harmed. The social critics, journalists, and researchers are therefore often ‘interestingly immune’ (Grimes et al, 2008, p. 51) when it comes to the negative effects of the panic at hand.”
The article also describes a New York Times piece from the era of the radio which suggested children would be harmed by listening to it “because the body needed ‘repose’ and could not ‘be kept up at a jazz rate forever.’” This reminds me of current fears of “overstimulating” TV shows that, according to many Instagram influencers, put children’s bodies into “fight or flight mode.” Honestly, the term “jazz rate” seems way more fun, and I plan to use it going forward, i.e.: At an indoor play place, music blasting, kids throwing plastic balls and scarfing down cupcakes. Me to the other parents: “Wow, their bodies are really at a jazz rate, huh?”
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