2026-09-19T20:26:34Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/597292025-10-27T18:00:46Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
William Charles Uricchio.
Elish, Madeleine Clare
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Comparative Media Studies.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
2010-10-29T18:25:04Z
2010-10-29T18:25:04Z
2010
2010
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/59729
670223306
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).
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.
by Madeleine Clare Elish.
S.M.
131 p.
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by
copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
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http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Comparative Media Studies.
The evolution of intimacy : advertising personal computers in the 1980s
Advertising personal computers in the 1980s
Thesis
application/pdf
Publication
unknown
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<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.</Abstract>
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