The Personal Computer by Anonymous
Over the course of the past few decades, technology has advanced to incredible heights, and humanity has advanced like never before. Specifically, we’ve gotten to the point where people are able to connect and communicate to one another from other ends of the planet in a fraction of a second, and people are able to own machines that allow them to create art, videos, and other media, or experience this form of media, all in their chair using a computer. However, this grand push towards even further advancement of this technology begs the question of how did we get to this point, and why does all of this advancement matter to people?
To really see the full picture of how personal computer (PC) culture became the way it is today, we need to look back in time to the 1960s, and 1960s counterculture, just before the time home computers were invented. During the 1960s many different events were happening, such as the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Along with this, there were events occurring in the U.S., such as the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King Jr., the feminist movement with the Voting Rights Act, birth control pills becoming available (for married women), and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, along with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There were also events occurring such as the Space Race, the moon landing, Woodstock Festival, and Stonewall Riots. As for the general culture of the time, people were mainly consumeristic, with social injustice towards many people, and an expanding military with the drafts and larger budget to accommodate for the Vietnam War and Cold War, along with any other events that could occur.
All of these events lead up to, influenced, and were influenced by the counterculture movement of the 1960s, with this culture mainly coming from the youth of the time who rejected the mainstream culture and both desired and advocated for things such as love, social justice, and revolution. These people had, “an alternative approach to life that manifested itself in a variety of activities, lifestyles, and artistic expressions, including recreational drug use, communal living, political protests, casual sex, and folk and rock music.” (Frommer). All of this is to say that the people who were part of the 1960s counterculture wanted freedom, both in expression and in what they’re allowed to do, and social justice. This, in turn, also led to people’s thoughts on the PC being about freedom and, “power to the people” (Pang), along with advertising for the PC in general. As one source puts it for the Macintosh computer, “News accounts casting its development team as fearless rebels and advertising describing it as "the computer for the rest of us" projected an image of the Macintosh as a machine for creative types, freethinkers and free spirits” (Pang), which is a great way to say that it was advertised towards people such as those part of the 1960s counterculture. Another part of this source that I wanted to mention was this quote, “This connection between computing and anti-authoritarianism was successful in part because it played on an assumption held by many people involved in early personal computing: that the invention of the personal computer owed as much to the counterculture's desire to oppose centralized authority and technology, as it did to the invention of the microprocessor.” (Pang). I wanted to mention this quote because it emphasises the importance of counterculture's impact on the PC, as many of the people who helped to work on making the PC were also part of counterculture, and that the work of these people, with the idea of allowing others more unrestricted freedom, was just as impactful for the creation of the PC as the microprocessor that even allowed this technology to be physically created.
In modern times, the PC has seen use by individuals in many different contexts and in many different parts of peoples’ day-to-day life. For instance, my father works for a good portion of the day, and many times his work follows him from the office, to the road, to even events or at home. Many times I have seen my dad at his PC in a meeting, sometimes it’s early in the morning, other times it can be in the afternoon, as my dad has clients in different time zones who he needs to talk to when the client is able. Other people, like some of my own friends, use their PCs for creative purposes, from making 3D models, to digital art, to filmmaking and editing with special effects. Many others, such as myself, also use PCs for entertainment purposes, like watching videos or looking at other media and creations online, or playing video games. But, out of all these purposes that people use a PC for, down to things that impact their daily lives, from hobbies, to work, to entertainment, to school, and more, people use PCs to talk and interact with one another, either one-to-one, or in groups large and small.
In this new world of ours, people are connected like never before, and are able to talk to one another near instantaneously. However, in this time where billions of people are able to talk to each other and be connected, an overwhelming number of people are also struggling with feelings of loneliness and despair. While it has been an issue before this point, this issue has become especially apparent after the Covid-19 pandemic, where people were told to stay inside for everyone’s safety, places like workplaces and schools closed, and people were encouraged to stay away from one another. Because of this, many people became forced to continue working or doing school online, and the only interaction many people had with others, outside of those they lived with, was through the internet. And, despite being able to talk to and hang out with others, even though they were all connected, many felt lonely, or lost, perhaps even unable to feel like there’s someone really there.
I talked about this topic not only because I believe it’s important and significant, but also because I’ve experienced these feelings too. I’ve felt lost in the past, unable to talk to others, or at least feel connected in some significant way to others. And, while PCs of the past may have been the ideal of freedom from people of 1960s counterculture, from those who wanted to feel more connected than the rest of the US at the time, at many times it seems as if PCs now are only making people feel more lonely, even in the ever connecting world that we are given with a PC. For an object that has, for better and worse, led me to where I am now, I believe that it has been impactful more positively than negatively overall.
So, I give personal computers three and a half stars.
Works Cited
Chleboun, Ben. “Khan Academy.” Khanacademy.org, 4 Nov. 2023, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-8/apush-1960s-america/a/the-counterculture-of-the-1960s. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.
Frommer, Fred. “1960s Counterculture.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 June 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/1960s-counterculture. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
Pang, Alex. “Computing and the Counterculture.” Stanford.edu, 14 July 2000, web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/counter.html. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.