Brad Morgan writes“Toy:” David Bowie and the Internet Age

by Bradley Morgan

Bowie’s lost album finally arrives 20 years later

“I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable,” David Bowie told Jeremy Paxman of BBC Newsnight during an interview in 1999. “I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.”

Bowie’s comments on the potentially chaotic intersection between the advent of the information superhighway and its relationship with and impact on society seem incredibly prescient, especially in hindsight with modern writers and critics often drawing parallels between Bowie’s future proclamations with critiques on modern ills such as the role social media has played within grander schemes to disrupt cultural and social institutions.

It’s a great quote from an excellent interview from the always eloquent Bowie, though only tending to resurface when navel-gazing about the past as we share it on our feeds collectively wondering where it all went wrong.

However, further into the interview and often excluded from clickbait articles, Bowie shares an idealistic fascination for what emerging technologies can do in the spirit of human connection. “From where I am, by virtue of the fact that I am a pop singer and writer, I embrace the idea there’s a new demystification process going on between the artist and the audience.”

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