[mellonaut]

This is hilarious. I remember a similar collection of headlines and opinion pieces calling out ‘newspapers on trains causing people not to talk to each other’, where ‘newspapers’ could be easily substituted for ‘smartphones’ to bring the title in the current era.

I wonder which piece of technology is currently cautioned as the root of all evil, bringing a laugh to future historians. ‘Video Games’ (causing violence and obesity) come to mind, and ‘AI’ (taking our jobs).

[raisin_churn]

It's still the bicycle. In my city in just the last year, I've seen bicycling accused of causing gentrification (along with Little Free Libraries), traffic, juvenile delinquency, gun violence, falling tax revenues, poor road maintenance, property tax increases, and undoubtedly some more that I've forgotten.

[bertil]

All of those require a thorough WTF, but "gun violence" is special. What could possibly be the connection?

[raisin_churn]

I found it equally bewildering when I heard the claim, but perhaps because gun violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by young men, and in the neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence, young men are also the overwhelming majority of bicyclists. No idea what causal mechanism the claimant was inferring from this correlation. Indeed, it's a highly localized correlation anyways: in less economically depressed parts of the city, the demographics of bicyclists are much more varied along gender, age, and racial lines.

I think there was also an incident in the last couple years in which a young guy was shot and killed by police after they got a "guy with a gun" call because he was very obviously carrying a handgun while riding a bike around his neighborhood. That was on the other side of town from me, and I don't think a whole lot came of it afterwards, so I might be a little fuzzy on the details.

[bertil]

Thanks for the answer, but, predictably that somehow felt worst than not knowing.

[amelius]

> I wonder which piece of technology is currently cautioned as the root of all evil, bringing a laugh to future historians. ‘Video Games’ (causing violence and obesity) come to mind, and ‘AI’ (taking our jobs).

Smartphones, social media.

[krunck]

Cryptocurrencies?