ABSTRACT
Much like interpersonal relationships, each past relationship informs what we expect from future relationships. This is not the same as technological determinism; the technology has not determined our culture or our psyche. Rather, our psyches have determined the practices of technology, which then became normalized into our culture. We share selfies online for the same reasons our ancestors made cave paintings. It is also true that we reflexively check our social media for the same reason we feel a sense of awe when they looked at these cave paintings.
By closely analyzing nine influential media technologies and how they changed the communication environment, the impact of 20th century technologies on the American psyche have become clearer. Moving forward, Americans will demand four key elements from their media: (1) honesty, or the capacity to reproduce authentic and identical content; (2) connection, or the opportunity share experiences with disparate geographic and temporal groups; (3) devotion, or the capacity to have our needs met anywhere from the most public to the most private places; and (4) flexibility, or that our technology will be personally satisfying independent of others’ desires—and if they are not, we expect the opportunity to generate our own content.
