prototypes of social media: Broadway’s Bye Bye Birdie — split screens + party lines

There’s a song in the musical Bye Bye Birdie where the kids sing while gossiping on the telephone, which in the time period of the stage play and film’s setting seems like a new-fangled innovation that the kids have normalized, much to the annoyance of their parents.

The song, Telephone Hour, contrasts the practical usage of the phone by parents (calling grandma, etc.) with the frivolous usage of the teens (gossiping and staying connected), and the divide between the two usages (one serious and adult / the other silly and adolescent) isn’t too different from the attitudinal divide between social media networks, for example, between Linked In and Facebook.

The resulting contrast seems a lot like year 2020 coronavirus Zoom Gallery view meetings, if you asked me. In reflection, have we really come that far?