Rational, justifiable consumption was invariably contrasted against the popular image of the wasteful, frivolous luxury consumer. Technology workers unconsciously labored to ensure that they were not seen as superficial consumers, a subject position that has historically and consistently been assigned to women. In the mass culture of post-Depression America, there was widespread social anxiety that the newly founded mass media would inculcate unbridled consumption among passive audiences, leading to excess, indulgence, and madness. This archetype was, as historian Alison Clarke writes, “a self-indulgent woman, freed from household drudgery by labor-saving devices to wile away her time in non-productive pursuits, [who] shopped as an act of pleasure, self-fulfillment, and autonomy rather than household provisioning.” By contrast, technology workers in the late 2000s, whether male or female, adhered to a supposedly masculine ethos of spending in which consumerism was justifiable only if it could be linked to more worthy pursuits: self-improvement or work.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 193