Calculators are a particularly bad example for your case. There was absolutely hyperbole against calculators when they were introduced. [1]With similar sentiment as well "They make us dumb" "Machines doing the thinking for us"Cars were definitely seen as a fad. More accurately a worse version of a horse [2]If you looked through your other examples, you'd see the same for those as well.Some things start as fads, but only time will tell if they gain a place in society. Truthfully it's too early t

You have gotta stop cherrypicking. The massive influx of hyperbolic articles about how electricity will change everything started in the 19th century. It became a common theme in fiction (including classics like Frankenstein) and became an enormous media hype war, which historians call the War of the Currents.Yes, electricity was useful. And it had hyperbolic articles talking about how transformative it would be. Like all prognostication, some of those articles were overblown, but, in some ways,