The buttons caused fear when they appeared in the 19th century. XIX

What we like about technology today was not well received by many people. Those were different times.

You call the elevator, turn on the light, change the channel, write a message. It’s normal… today. But at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the spread of electric buttons generated, one might say, some panic.

For some critics at the time, these small devices threatened to separate people from knowledge about how the machines they used daily worked, recalls .

The push button began to become common in most people’s lives at the end of the 19th century, first in doorbells and then in light switches, alarm clocks, flashlights and many other devices. The idea of ​​triggering something with a simple touch was not new: instruments such as the harpsichord or the organ already depended on similar mechanisms. But now, the technology was hidden: when opening a harpsichord, it was possible to see the connection between the key and the sound produced. In the case of an electric bell, the process was less obvious.

This separation between gesture and consequence worried educators and social reformers. In 1916, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, author and activist, warned that the ease of “pressing a button and being served” could reduce the sense of responsibility about what was happening behind the scenes. It was feared that children and adults would become dependent on invisible mechanisms, and that they would lose initiative and technical curiosity. A toned down version of what is feared today, for example, with the ease that ChatGPT brings us.

According to researcher Rachel Plotnick, from Indiana University Bloomington, at the end of the 19th century, many laypeople had some practical knowledge about electricity and the buttons they used. In schools, students learned to build electrical bells and switches. Magazines and books for children also explained how to make simple devices. Experimentation was encouraged.

Over time, desires change, and the simpler and safer button won. The electrical industry promoted buttons as symbols of modernity and comfort, without the need for technical knowledge.

Companies like Edison Electric sold push-button lighting as an almost indispensable innovation, while Kodak popularized the motto “You press the button, we do the rest”.

There were attempts in the 1910s and 1920s to recover a culture of technical literacy around electricity. But the ubiquity of buttons had already transformed habits. Most users accepted the convenience of the interface, even without understanding what was going on behind it. The simpler and more accessible the technologies, the less we understand them…