9 Everyday Inventions That Caused Widespread Panic

By Stevie Shephard / September 9, 2016

You can't seem to open a newspaper (or whatever the electronic equivalent is) these days without encountering the latest whirlwind of moral panic regarding a new piece of technology or even, shock horror, a new trend amongst those darn trendy youths. Every day is now a struggle against the oncoming horde of technologically enhanced zombie humans, desperately trying to fry you with microwaves and destroy your brain cells with social media - and won't somebody please think of the children?

You might want to think twice before hopping aboard the paranoia bandwagon, however, as this irrational knee jerk fear response is often little more than just that: Irrational. What's more, it's nothing new.

People, and if we're being honest, usually the older generation, have always railed against new fangled technology, bemoaning its dumbing effect on what they regard as the feckless youth and harking back to a simpler time when everybody used the technology that they grew up with. This dates right back to the time of the Ancient Greeks, by the way.

Quite why people do this is unclear. It could be fear, ignorance or even jealousy but, one thing is for sure, and that is that for every new technology that gains any popularity, there will always be an old man shouting at clouds.