Social media: Lessons from 1920s arcade machines

Andrew Chen claims that technology changes, but people stay the same. He visits the Mechanical Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf in SF and notes that what entertained people then entertain them now – on social networks:

Love Calculators
Telling the Future
Old school “Jackass” (much more demure)
Simulations.

It is worth reading the whole thing

As always, if you can find offline parallels for online behavior, you are in good shape.