Ah, yes, remember when Tristan Harris said no one got upset over the bicycle? Here is Publishers Weekly in 1895 lamenting the state of bookselling and "the wheelman is blamed."
Note well that PW also fretted about magazines and newspapers (the line between them & books was not distinct), discounting department stores, and cheap books for the masses. Edison's audio inventions also worried them. See here podcasters circa 1894 via Scribner's:
In 1910 the Springfield Republican warned that cheap books would bring the culture what magazines had: "the peril of impermanence."
In 1911, English poet Edmund Gosse lamented that Carnegie Libraries made "the superfluity of printed matter an absolute nightmare." He advocated "enormous destruction of printed books" else "librarians will go mad."
Facebook of 1880: fiction. Hour magazine warned: "Novel-readers are like opium-smokers: the more they have it the more they want of it, & the publishers, delighted at this state of affairs go on corrupting public taste & understanding & making fortunes out of this corruption."
FB OB of 1908: Booksellers Assn: "Recognizing the responsibility of the bookseller in disseminating the literature of the community, this Assn feels called upon at this time to use its influence to discourage the publication & sale of books of pronounced immoral character."

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More from @jeffjarvis

20 Nov
WARNING to @verizonfios customers: If your system is working, do NOT update or upgrade anything. I made that mistake and now I'm stuck in HELL. 1/
The latest: One by one, over days, our TV One Mini set-top boxes are dying, unable to connect to the network, giving us NO TV. The were working fine, then they were not. Makes no sense. 2/
I tried everything: nothing. I then tried to set up the boxes with wifi, which is supposed to be possible. Impossible, it turns out. I found secret menus on the box and tried to set up my own SSID. Nope. Nothing. 3/
Read 14 tweets
17 Nov
I was happy with @fios for years because I never dealt with the company. Then I made the big mistake of updating my equipment. AND IT HAS BEEN HELL. 1/
I spent an hour and a half (!) making my order (i.e., upgrade speed, update boxes). Guy arrives for service with only a router, no terminal, no boxes. He sets up a next appointment. Oh, joy. 2/
Then only some of the boxes arrive. Then the rest arrive. Then they say I have no appointment. Then I install the boxes on my own. Then they don't work. Then I spend another two hours trying to get them to work. 3/
Read 8 tweets
12 Nov
Y'think, journalists, this just might be a failure of journalism? Climate change has almost never been discussed, for example, in presidential debates of recent vintage.
The strong winds of climate change have failed to move the opinions of many Americans washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro…
Journalists are willfully blind to the paradox of their work: They insist their journalism has impact but they refuse to acknowledge that impact at critical moments: like supposed worsening approval of a president or unease about the economy stirred up by the journalism itself.
Journalists also need to acknowledge their bias and the self-fulfilling prophesy of polls. As James Carey taught, polls preempt the public conversation they are supposed to measure. medium.com/whither-news/p…
Read 5 tweets
2 Nov
#internetlessons2021 starts with a negative tone as a moderator says "Public sentiment has turned against the internet." Really? Media sentiment has certainly turned and @DrTechlash marks when that happened in her book.
In the first 15 minutes, #internetlessons2021 is all about harms. After what the net brought us in the pandemic, can we not also focus on the good we want to foster and amplify?
"Americans have never hated technology more," says the moderator, Sarah Jeong, from the NYTimes. That is media--The Times--projecting its own moral panic and then reporting it as public opinion without evidence. #internetlessons2021
Read 10 tweets
27 Oct
Now Morning Joe is talking about "illiberalism on both sides."
Oy.
Now it comes full circle as McWhorter blames social media.
"I don't know what you're up to." @esglaude to @JohnHMcWhorter. Amen.
I so wish Morning Joe had given Glaude the full segment to question McWorter.
Read 4 tweets
18 Oct
This is the lead story in the Süddeutsche Zeitung + Zeit Online + Der Spiegel + FAZ + taz ... but not Bild or Springer's Welt.
sueddeutsche.de/medien/medien-…
+ zeit.de/kultur/2021-10…
+
spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unt…
+faz.net/aktuell/feuill…
+
taz.de/Springer-stell…
.@BuzzFeed angles:
* Ippen Digital bought BuzzFeed Germany. That team investigated Reichelt & Bild. Dirk Ippen blocked the story.
* Last @benyt target, Ozy, was, he said, in some sort of business talks involving BuzzFeed.
* Of course, @benyt founded & ran BuzzFeed News.
Read 4 tweets

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