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Technology Panic

In 1938 the radio was a fairly new invention and not in too many homes. But on October 30 there was a wave of mass hysteria that seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o’clock. It was that night that the dramatization of H. G. Wells’s fantasy, “The War of the Worlds,” led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.

One would think that in today’s technology advance society where news can be gotten 24 hours a day on cable TV or the Internet, that events such as that couldn’t happen today.

But when you have instant communications, it may be easier to do than before. It seems that everyday some sort of email ‘panic’ os spread. Emails that didn’t begin today, but ones that’s been floating the web for 10 years or more, declaring dangers that aren’t, studies that never happened, or press released that were never published.

Recently we heard of the death of the composer to ‘Itzy Bitzy Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini’ only to find out less than 24 hours later that the man who died had told his long-time wife he wrote it, but didn’t and the rightful composer to still alive and well.

I suppose it’s human nature to believe what you hear or read, even when common sense or logic says to check before believing. Just remember Orson Wells announced at the beginning of the Radio-Play that it was a dramatization. It was also announced a few times during the broadcast, but panic still occurred.

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

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