Back in fifth-century BCE Athens, Plato warned that writing would weaken memory and spread half-truths. He feared students who rely on ink could lose the skill of true recall. A few centuries later, Socrates himself fretted over poetry, arguing that Homer’s verses stirred emotions without understanding. Those early debates set the tone: every new medium brings triumphs—and anxieties. Fast-forward to the Gutenberg press around 1440. Within decades, authorities feared pamphlets would fuel heresy and rebellion. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses spread like wildfire, triggering both the Reformation and crackdowns by the Catholic Church. In the 19th century, the telegraph and telephone drew similar ire. Critics blamed them for “electrical fog” that harmed health and twisted young minds into gadget-addicted drones. The 20th century only amped things up. Comic books prompted Senator Estes Kefauver’s 1954 hearings, after psychiatrist Fredric Wertham linked Batman and Robin to juvenile delinquency. Rock ’n’ roll earned the label “devil’s music,” while Cold War fears painted television as Communist propaganda. In the ’90s, Congress held hearings on violent video games—Mortal Kombat and Doom led the charge—and today, social media and AI trigger debates over privacy, manipulation and job losses. Through it all, the pattern stays the same: new tech arrives, society panics, then adapts.