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Sadly they didn't realize we'd [almost] all be walking around with earbuds in our ears and screens glued to our eyes that "customize" our advertising content, while making us feel "proud" to be individuals rather than "cattle."Science fiction writers of the post-WWII era saw this coming and had a lot of fun with it. In Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth's "The Space Merchants"(1952), set in a future America, government had disappeared and all was run by corporations, of which the advertising business was the most powerful. Possession of earplugs was a Class-A felony.
I need to think through this a bit more (working now, so this is quick on break) but I'm wondering about the rise of individualism (as opposed to collectivism) that occurred following WWII and the intersections between that and early mass media (small number of TV stations, controlled content, etc.) to a much more individualistic targeted advertising process.
Consumerism crossed with the U.S.'s obsession with the individual, taken up by marketers, which further isolated us.