The evolution of intimacy : advertising personal computers in the 1980s
Name
670223306-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
14.23 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
98ad16e3dc4fd1b9077b6180b728c7f4
Author(s)
Elish, Madeleine Clare
Advisor(s)
William Charles Uricchio.
Alternative Title
Advertising personal computers in the 1980s
Date Issued
2010
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
At the heart of this thesis is a desire to understand the evolving and situated relationship between humans and computers. Looking to a specific kind of computer at a specific moment in history, I analyze the ways in which advertising played a role in socially constructing an individual's relationship to the personal computer in the home. Based an analysis of over 500 advertisements in widely circulated magazines during 1984-1987, this thesis examines through emblematic examples how advertisements during this period positioned the personal computer as a domestic machine. In observing the means of socially constructing the personal computer in the mid -1980s, we come to understand the role and potential implications of advertising in socially constructing meaning, as well as gain a deep perspective on how the personal computer was constituted in the early years of its introduction into the home. Taken together, these advertisements present a portrait of a technology's evolution and begin to reveal how personal computers took on the meaning and place that they now occupy in contemporary life. Once embodiments of military and corporate de-humanizing control, computers are now accepted as evocative, social extensions of individual selves that represent individual freedom and power. With personal computers as our contemporary companions, at home, at work and in our laps, this thesis tells a history of how our relationship began.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-131).
Subjects
Comparative Media Studies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
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