Writing (Plato, Phaedrus, 360 B.C.: Thamos to Theuth, god of inventions)
... this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

Reading (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762)
... I get rid of the chief cause of their sorrows, namely their books. Reading is the curse of childhood, yet it is almost the only occupation you can find for children.

Photography (Leipziger Anzeiger, a german newspaper, end 19th century, cit. Benjamin, p.48)
Flüchtige Spiegelbilder festhalten zu wollen, dies ist nicht bloß ein Ding der Unmöglichkeit, wie es sich nach gründlicher deutscher Untersuchung herausgestellt hat, sondern schon der Wunsch, dies zu wollen, ist eine Gotteslästerung. Der Mensch ist nach dem Ebenbilde Gottes geschaffen und Gottes Bild kann durch keine menschliche Maschine festgehalten werden. Höchstens der göttliche Künstler darf, begeistert von himmlischer Eingebung, es wagen, die gottmenschlichen Züge, im Augenblick höchster Weihe, auf den höheren Befehl seines Genius, ohne jede Maschinenhilfe wiederzugeben.

Music Records (John Phillip Sousa, U.S Congress, early 20th century)
These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal chord left. The vocal chord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.