Internet before and its growing pains (3/5)

Studying the history of technology, I was surprised to learn that the electric car was already invented around the same period (1820s) as the gasoline-powered car. For various reasons the gasoline-powered car became ‘the path’ as we know it and the electric car the side path. One reason was the advertising style, which sold the idea of masculinity. I still have the hard copy of the Reader ‘De Gouden Delta – Een (techniek)geschiedenis van Nederland’ from my professor, H. Lintsen, from 2004, but I cannot find the part with this detail. I imagine it’s something we discussed in class. So far, ChatGPT can recall something… I will search for another source though. I sent my professor a email.

Early electric cars were initially popular among women because they didn’t require the physical effort needed to start a gasoline engine (which often required hand-cranking). However, as car culture evolved, gasoline cars were increasingly marketed as symbols of masculinity, power, and adventure, with electric cars seen as weaker and more domestic. This gendered marketing reinforced stereotypes and made electric vehicles less appealing to men, who were the primary car buyers at the time.
[Chat GPT, 2024]

You don’ t need to do intensive research to understand that internet has impacted life. On a personal note, I feel less anxious in the car when I use Google Maps. I can easily contact my friends and family from around the world, feeling a greater connection and having an almost unlimited source of information to my service. There are also less enjoyable aspects, like the endless scrolling, time flies when I am on my phone. I find it harder to focus on things, and when it comes to personal data, I’m unsure where it is and how it’s being used.
Shoshana Zuboff describes this for example as a new economic system, surveillance capitalism. A system where personal data is harvested by corporations, often without explicit consent, to predict and influence human behavior. She writes that “Analyzing massive data sets began as a way to reduce uncertainty by discovering the probabilities of future patterns in the behavior of people and systems”. Unlike traditional capitalism, which monetizes goods and services, surveillance capitalism profits from the commodification of personal data. Companies like Google, Meta (Facebook), and others collect vast amounts of behavioral data from users, analyzing it to generate predictive models. These models are then sold to advertisers and other third parties seeking to manipulate consumer behavior or decision making.