Social change 1950-2000 - EduqasChanges in information technology and literature

Information technology

• Information technology became an increasingly important influence on entertainment in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Younger people became increasingly interested in computer games as changes in technology allowed people to have computers at home.

Personal computers

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, personal computers became devices that people could use at home rather than just at work. Many different companies produced these computers, but the majority of them were created by two rival companies: Microsoft (founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975) and Apple Computer, Inc. (founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976).

This competition drove both companies to create computers and software that were affordable for home users to buy and easy to use.

The internet

New methods of communication also became available, such as electronic mail (email), internet chat programmes and discussion forums. These allowed people to communicate in a more immediate way than they had before.

Gaming

During the early 1970s, video games were first developed and become available to play in video arcades. The first video arcade machine, Computer Space, was released in 1971. One of the most famous arcade games, Space Invaders, was released in 1978.

Similarly to personal computers, systems for playing video games had first been developed for use at home during the 1970s. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that gaming at home became more common. This began with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, which was followed by the Sega Master System in 1986 and then the Sony PlayStation in 1995. During the 1990s, as the availability of the internet increased, video games enabled people to play games online.

Literature

While some American literature from this period attempted to understand what it meant to be an American, other authors used literature to challenge what were seen as traditional American values.

The great American novel

The idea of writing the great American novel was to tell a story that reflected a particular element of American society or culture. Some examples of this kind of novel are:

• Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960), which looked at the values of middle-class Americans
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960), which focused on racial discrimination
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985), which looked at the historical massacre of indigenous Americans

Beatniks and the counterculture

Authors from the counterculture challenged many American social values that they saw as old-fashioned. Authors who were part of this movement were known as the Beat Generation or Beatniks. Some examples of countercultural novels are:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger (1951), which examined attitudes towards teenage rebellion and mental health
• the poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg (1956), which was about social outcasts and had homosexuality as one of its themes
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957), which was about a young man travelling around America trying to find his identity and also about drug-taking

Black American authors

Many black American authors wrote important books about racial discrimination in America. For example, Black Boy by Richard Wright (1945) described the experience of segregated education in the southern states. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) was about racial problems in the northern states of America.

Toni Morrison won national and international awards including the Nobel Prize in Literature for her writing about racial discrimination. Her novels included The Bluest Eye (1970) and Beloved (1987).