# What other forms of mass media did older generations complain about? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939 "2013-11-14T22:50:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earth001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a6a055/32.png) [@Earth001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earth001)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/1 "2013-11-14T22:50:29Z")
It seems like a lot of older people and parents often like to complain about the things that the younger generation enjoys. I am not so sure if this is a recent phenomenon or has this been going on through human history. Here are some of the forms of mass media people have been complaining about today: 1. **Video Games:** for whatever reason a lot of society still seems to have a hatred of video games. Either they are: 1. Causing our kids to become violent 2. Making them into digital addicts 3. Wasting their precious youth and time. 2. **The Internet:** The internet gets a lot of the same complaints 3. **Television:** Television gets a lot of complaints for rotting our minds and wasting precious time that we could be reading. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/2 "2013-11-14T22:58:23Z")
My mother’s mother wouldn’t let her kids listen to the radio on Sunday (except for baseball when my grandfather wanted to listen to a game). ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/3 "2013-11-14T23:29:22Z")
My folks would get on to me for going around with a transistor radio plugged into my ear most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/4 "2013-11-14T23:31:48Z")
Read up on the Yellow Press–newspapers have long been subject to complaints: > **[Yellow journalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_press)** > > Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. > In English, the term is chiefly... ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/5 "2013-11-14T23:40:03Z")
> [@Earth001](#): > > 3. **Television:** Television gets a lot of complaints for rotting our minds and wasting precious time that we could be reading. Of course way back in the day, the complaint was that reading for entertainment ruined the mind: “The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?” Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, Reverend Enos Hitchcock, 1790 ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/6 "2013-11-14T23:55:08Z")
There were attacks on comic books in the 40s and 50s and even mass burnings. Google seduction of the innocent or Fredric Wertham. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/7 "2013-11-15T00:00:37Z")
The waltz and novels were hugely condemned. I hate to spoil the fun, but the answer to the OP is every last one. Every. Last. One. Anything you can think of, no matter how innocuous today. Nothing new ever becomes widespread without people condemning it in outrage! yes, outrage! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/8 "2013-11-15T01:37:18Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I hate to spoil the fun, but the answer to the OP is every last one. Every. Last. One. Anything you can think of, no matter how innocuous today. Nothing new ever becomes widespread without people condemning it in outrage! yes, outrage! Yup. Even stuff now enjoyed only by the cultural/social elite, e.g. opera and Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/9 "2013-11-15T01:48:41Z")
Jazz, movies, and yes, comic books. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/10 "2013-11-15T02:29:59Z")
And that writing and reading killed everyone’s memory. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/11 "2013-11-15T02:36:54Z")
Are vinyl records mass media? There were record [burnings](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc7rBVUIHUg) after John Lennon said that the Beatles were “Bigger than Jesus”. ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/12 "2013-11-15T02:54:07Z")
Socrates wasn’t a fan of writing (if Plato’s to be believed, since he was the one who wrote everything he said down): [Socrates on the Forgetfulness that Comes with Writing - New Learning Online](http://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-1-literacies-on-a-human-scale/socrates-on-the-forgetfulness-that-comes-with-writing/) ---
**Author:** ![NiceGuyJack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/niceguyjack/32/3069_2.png) [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/13 "2013-11-15T02:54:11Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The waltz and novels were hugely condemned. > > I hate to spoil the fun, but the answer to the OP is every last one. Every. Last. One. Anything you can think of, no matter how innocuous today. Nothing new ever becomes widespread without people condemning it in outrage! yes, outrage! I for one can’t stand these hidden spoilers. There is a button there, you can press it and reveal what’s going to happen. The temptation is too great and I find myself always clicking on them ruining countless books and movies which I may or may not see. These hidden spoilers should be banned! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/14 "2013-11-15T03:22:46Z")
[It’s not just mass media](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_of_the_vanities). ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/15 "2013-11-15T03:26:50Z")
Grunk hate new cliff by salt lick. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/16 "2013-11-15T03:34:05Z")
A lot of church folks would completely avoid movies due to the terrible content in them. My parents told me that even in the late 1970’s, many Christians at their church thought going to the movies was…questionable. Like…any movies for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/17 "2013-11-15T05:31:25Z")
> [@](#): > > All right, I’ll set out how we organized our education in the olden days, when I talked about what’s just and prospered, when people wished to practise self-restraint. First, there was a rule—children made no noise, no muttering. Then, when they went outside, walking the streets to the music master’s house, groups of youngsters from the same part of town went in straight lines and never wore a cloak, not even when the snow fell thick as flour. There he taught them to sing with thighs apart. They had to memorize their songs—such as, “Dreadful Pallas Who Destroys Whole Cities,” and “A Cry From Far Away.” These they sang in the same style their fathers had passed down. If any young lad fooled around or tried to innovate with some new flourishes, like the contorted sounds we have today from those who carry on the Phrynis style, he was beaten, soundly thrashed, his punishment for tarnishing the Muse. – Aristophanes, “The Clouds” c. 420 BCE Note that this is satire, Aristophanes is making fun of people who went “kids, these days.” So, 2500 years ago, in Athens, parents complained about their kids listening to music in the Phrynis style. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/18 "2013-11-15T10:07:40Z")
Pamphlets It is well known that from the eve of the Civil War there was a sudden and dramatic surge in the output of the press. As censorship controls broke down following the meeting of the Long Parliament in late 1640, there was a great explosion of pamphlet and other printed materials, discussing a wide range of political, constitutional, and religious topics, and it is probably not too controversial to assert that the English Revolution of the mid-seventeenth century was accompanied by a concomitant media revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/19 "2013-11-15T13:26:04Z")
[Opera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beggar's_Opera) To be fair, it was only that specific opera, but it had all sorts of wonderful panic about how “Rapine and violence” were increasing because it glorified it and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939/20 "2013-11-15T15:35:21Z")
Damn you, Jragon ! I was about to say that ! 🙂 But OK, backup plan : the printing press was sharply criticized, because it copied other books than the Bible and that was obviously Dangerous. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forms-of-mass-media-did-older-generations-complain-about/673939.md?page=2)