In Haunted Media, the author discusses the history of technology and our culture's tendency to see new technology as means to connect with the dead. There is; however, another element to the way our culture sees new technologies that is odd to me. Our culture tends to see technology as a living thin itself rather than an object through which people communicate. The author tells three stories of people treating television as living. A man shoots his tv set, another man stabs actors for being affiliated with tv, and a tv had a picture of a woman stuck on the screen whether the tv was plugged in or not. The author describes these events as being connected in these words: "Each of these stories draws on a larger cultural mythology about the 'living' quality of such technologies, suggesting, in this case, that television is 'alive . . . living, real, not dead' (even if it sometimes serves as a medium of the dead)." It is odd to me that people see the tv as a sentient intruder rather than an entertainment tool or their computer as a friend rather than a multi-tool.
People are also fascinated with using new technology to commune with the deceased. The significant movement started with the telegraph as it was the first technology of it's kind to disembody the medium of communication, which caused some to believe that a body wasn't necessary at all to communicate and thus, the dead could communicate as well. This continued with haunting stories popping up all over the place documenting "ghosts" using telegraphs, computers, tvs, etc. to communicate with people. There are a vast amount of shows that use this lore including Supernatural, Scooby Doo, etc.
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