Post submitted by Tess Pajaron of Open Colleges, an online course provider based in Australia. She regularly writes about study and work abroad experiences and advocates for education.
Would you believe me if I told you that when the telephone was invented, people didn't believe it would eventually become part of their daily lives?
In fact, the telephone was vilified. Some called it "the instrument of the devil." TheNew York Times, in 1876, reported that the telephone will "empty the concert-halls and the churches" as it enables people to listen to lectures, sermons, and concerts from the comfort of their own homes. You can see where the argument was going.
Sounds familiar? It should.
Because the same criticism applied to pretty much all major inventions of the last century, the phonograph was forecasted to be the cause of the demise of books and reading—and that boys of the future will "never have to learn his letters or to wrestle with the spelling book." And the television, as you probably know, is