Computers Promised to Free Us. What Happened?
Technology was once seen as countercultural.
The 1984 Super Bowl advertisement directed by Ridley Scott spawned a technological upheaval. In a mere minute, it depicted men in gray suits, heads shaved and expressionless, marching towards an empty auditorium. A woman in red shorts and a white tank top, reminiscent of an aerobics participant, runs to the venue armed with a sledgehammer.
As she enters, she strikes Big Brother, unleashing a flash of light and a gust of wind that awakens the stunned audience. A soothing voice announces, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."
Apple did indeed sell 250,000 of its user-friendly, mouse-operated machines that year, reinforcing the ad's assertion that personal computers, contrary to centralized control, were instruments of individual freedom. The emergence of the internet seemed to validate this promise: our devices wouldn't enslave us; they would liberate us.
The dystopia in the ad originated from George Orwell's imagination, but the fears it instilled had deep American origins. In the early 20th century, as mass consumer culture expanded, artists, intellectuals, and critics fretted over the loss of individualism brought about by conformity. This critique evolved from cultural commentary in the 1920s to the counterculture's rebellions in the 1960s.
The counterculture promised liberation from conformity, which resonated with the mainstream culture and advertising. Digital culture, particularly in Northern California, where the tech industry and counterculture intersected, readily embraced these ideals. By the 1990s, the internet was seen as the fulfillment of countercultural ideals, with digital entrepreneurs positioning themselves as transgressors who would create a world of self-expression and open exchange.
Despite the dissolution of mass culture and conformity, we still reside in their shadow, inhabiting a fractured age of social media and algorithms that offer a semblance of freedom, even as they serve corporate interests that monitor our online activities.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
