The electronic cottage: how technology causes family breakdown
Niall McCrae
Photo by A. C. on Unsplash
Alvin Toffler, whose prophetic book Future Shock (1970) primed sociologists and politicians for radical change to society as a result of technological advances, was in a position ten years later to show how much of his vision was being realised.
In The Third Wave: the Revolution that will Change Our Lives (1980) he described how the industrial economy was sinking and taking the family structure down with it.
In the First Wave of human organisation (the agricultural revolution) three or more generations lived together as a family unit. The Second Wave (the industrial revolution) created the nuclear family, and Toffler saw that the coming Third Wave would undermine and eventually destroy this living arrangement. Conservative-minded readers might want to shoot the messenger, but undoubtedly Toffler was right on how conventional families would disintegrate.
At the school gates today, there are single mothers, gay and lesbian parents, older relatives and various arrangements under child custody orders, and in some areas a stable home of mum and dad bringing up children is the exception rather than the rule.
In a time of exploding change – with personal lives being torn apart, the existing social order crumbling, and a fantastic new way of life emerging on the horizon – asking the very largest of questions about our future is not merely a matter of intellectual curiosity. It is a matter of survival.
Just as industry is being outmoded by the ‘technosphere’, the nuclear family would be replaced in the ‘sociosphere’ of the Third Wave. In his chapter ‘Families of the Future’, Toffler decried political leaders (at the time, Jimmy Carter) for pledging to restore family values. He criticised the tendency to place fault in individual people or to blame rock music, pornography or feminism for family breakdown. The only way to save the idealised family would be to reverse technological progress.
The Third Wave was already happening, Toffler observed: millions of Americans living alone, single parents, a steadily rising population of divorcees, cohabiting (rather than married) couples, households with children of different parents, and homosexual relationships. In this ‘maze of kinship arrangements’, no single form would dominate. Toffler predicted homosexual couples raising children and speculated on the possibility of cloning.
Describing the ‘electronic cottage’, Toffler correctly anticipated working from home on computers, although his illustration was influenced by heterosexual norms and the manufacturing economy:
–
We might find both husband and wife taking turns at monitoring a complex manufacturing process on the console screen, four hours on, four hours off.
Foreseeing dramatic change to working lives, Toffler argued that technology was the determinant of how people live together (or apart). Indeed, ‘the very definition of love would be transformed’.
Communes, popular in the 1960s and 70s, mostly failed, but Toffler predicted the rise of extended families evolving in the electronic economy.
Networks of expanded families could supply some needed business or social service. Internally, they might or might not share sex across marriage lines. They might or might not be heterosexual. They might be childless or childful.
Politicians should embrace change rather than row against the tide, Toffler opined.
The decision to live outside a nuclear family framework should be made easier not harder.
Conservative commentators warn of civilisational collapse, but Toffler was optimistic that people would adapt and willingly participate in the creation of a new civilisation. Klaus Schwab’s ‘Great Reset’ was simply building on the blueprint for a new society envisaged by the shocking futurist.
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fats waller – your feet’s too big – YouTube
What happens when the remainder of wealth is funneled up to the upper 1/2%
The Fuckers will BURST OPEN.
With hubris.
Exhausted, restless, and sleepless to the end of the night
Trickle down economy…
… never works – nor does “the rising tide lift all boats” … what about the boat that leaks…
The reminder 1/2% will funnel up to the 1 0/00. The the reminder 0,9 0/00 will funnel up to the 1. One global Emperor will own the whole shit.
And you? You will have your TV money on the screen and you will be happy…………..LOL.
You will be so f….. happy man………………….. 😂 .
how technology causes family breakdown?
Covid did not need tek to show what families and friends are willing to do to the unvaccinated and non maskers.
Thanks for reminding us.
There was no covid.
But tech-transmission infected the belief in a fear-driven operating system.
Sacrifice of ‘the Othered’ traitors, heretics run a form of self-righteous resentment. It runs as part of the self-special identity conflict.
The root deconstructive element is electronic virtualization. It is lightspeed replacement of all work systems that relied upon social interaction and human labor. The faster capitalism (the production of excess capital to acquire more excess capital) can create business services and products, the faster the transactions, the greater the income in a shorter time period, the greater excess capital is amassed. This is why the capitali$t cla$$ has lobbied absolute deregulation of everything and occupied control of government so that nothing can interfere with the deployment of virtual systems that speed and compact business profit. IMHO.
Not just Mossad but a Freemason worshipper.
Truth Seeker (@_TruthZone_): “What do you notice about this photo? They always show you their affiliation…” | nitter.poast.org
This is where human connections are made up close and personal! https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-have-been-suffering-from-sev-YBtZcu0rQlaPjjrV7wVkwQ
One apple a day keeps the doctor away. The alternative is a shrink. Yes I know I know we are talking about serious matters here. But you dont wanna hear the right solution anyway.
“A stable home of mum and dad bringing up the children being the exception….”
Is this to say that single mums, single dads, gays, grandparents and guardians DON’T provide a stable home?
Oh Joe, say it isn’t so.
I have lots of stories that would refute the Father Knows Best scenario of a heterosexual mum and dad ideal household. And on the other hand, plenty of stories about children growing up in “alternative” households that are loved and cared for.
I sincerely hope I have misunderstood this article.
Is technology having an effect? Of course it is. But the horse is out of the barn and love and caretaking has nothing to do with it.
No. The article doesn’t says that. It says the optimum is a father and mother. But when the father or mother is away we try to give the child a substitution.
Many responsible single mothers and less single fathers are doing a hard responsible job for their kids.
Have you ever been to parents meetings at kindergarten or primary schools with a single kid?
Have you noticed how the child look upon the other children who are there with both their mom and dad, and you hear your child speaking “where is my dad?”. It hurt.
So the optimum is both. But politics and more made it not feasible.
Well, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion.
Thank God it isn’t fact.
Central Europe must seriously address these so-called “Anglo-American” hypocrites. Germany came to the aid of Austria-Hungary in WWI. And for this, it was punished by the so-called Western Allies as the sole culprit for the war.
They deliberately and intentionally created (with Hitler) a MONSTER through their incomprehensible injustice! They simply swept all their murders under the carpet again in the course of their so-called “liberation” in 1945!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vae_victis
But what is even more astonishing is that these cowardly bastards are now being haunted by their misdeeds in their own countries! They killed Germany and got Africa! Even Hitler would have laughed at that! It is so f-ing ridiculous!
A vivisection of the white race on balls & backbone, so historically betrayed that even their “veterans” are now ashamed! Eliminating Germany was more important to them! They are now paying for their fate, and no power can undo their betrayal!
Meanwhile, South of the border:
https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/venezuela-under-siege-a-hundred-deaths-at-sea-hundreds-of-thousands-by-sanctions/
Hang on; the Empire of War Greed and Hypocrisy doesn’t recognise borders.
‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’
But what about humans, living, breathing humans?
Just like us.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/19/patrick-lawrence-after-the-first-70669-deaths/
You get to be a pig
From an attendee at Cop30:
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/william-ramsey-investigates–1898073
Just because the MSM (except the occasional bout of Fraudian hysteria) has rowed back on it for a bit doesn’t mean “Climate Change” has gone away.
It’s being re-branded. They are still talking about how your “carbon footprint”
will be used to determine your overall consumption.. Buying a real red meat
steak will really cut into you “carbon budget”… And you, of course, will do as
the governments Nudge Unit wants you to do – you’ll cut back on carbon
expensive real red meat steaks, and abide by the rationing the carbon budget
required of you… And you’ll tell everyone it was Your Own Decision…
Yes carbon dioxide as a ‘marker’ for energy usage as a new basis for currency. The pretext is just a lever, the regulatory structure is mostly in place. Democratically accountable? No! Corruption lies in unaccountability to law – hence corrupt legalese usurps and masks in ‘Common Good’ as gaslightling coercions.
‘Big pHarmer is making Mexico sick’
https://scheerpost.com/2025/12/19/big-pharma-is-making-mexico-sick-medicine-and-supply-shortages-are-rampant/
Are these ‘journalists’ slow on the uptake or what?
“If you cant beat them join them” seems to be the message here.
But, my experiences living through the 68′ revolution, the poor 80’es, the boomer generation, says that we left quality behind in our worshipping of mammon.
I see children, youngsters and teens, get stars in their eyes when they see videos from the 70’es and hear the blood, sweat, and tears music from that epoch.
Many of us from the later generation look up to those couples who made a wedding to the gold and diamond, and succeeded to maintain to be a father, mother and grandparents for their children in a long generation.
We miss it, every single child miss it, and we see it as something not obtainable by invisible forces.
The ideology promoted here comes from the evolution crowd, Darwin, Lamarck. They think WE are in control and can just develop ourselves in the direction we want. We cant.
We are born here within a frame and with premises we must obey, otherwise we will hurt ourselves as seen; Autism, Cancer, Allergic, Heart problems, Bi-polar, m.m.
.
It rains, you take your raincoat on to not get lung inflammation. The sun is sharp, you protect yourself with glasses and shadow, let the shower sit on your body to cool off. a.s.o.
Very nicely put and no sarcasm, thank you ! Some meanings were difficult to grasp but I got the general idea.
A brutal taste of our future:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-20/victorian-men-arrested-liverpool-to-sue-sw-police/106166008
Check out the military style clothing the ‘security’ FORCES are wearing.
The most important thing is that Australia’s PM and Government starts to use all their resources and forces to defend Israel. This is what matters!
If the Australian Government do not hurry up, there will be other meatballs in the soup!
“Future Shock”indeed from “electronic cottage” to digital prison.
Her feets too big.
She is a good runner, strong legs. She could bang you out in any night. Not all women are born like Pin Su:
Really, Admin???
THIS is OK but writing something about a nationality is not???
This is vile.
Its a joke. Maybe not funny but nevertheless……….a joke.
To bring a smile up in people’s face. Try not to take it personally. What happen in public is neutral.
Both models chose to expose themselves in public why we are allowed to use them not in private but in symbolic relations.
Wasn’t referring to Twiggy photo. Was referring to the first photo and the comment.
And I stand by my comment. Many disgusting comments are allowed without any comment by Admin but should you be nationality or politically inappropriate it’s “tsk tsk”.
It is just Aloysius small dry comments. I wouldnt be without them.
But ok, we are different, take care.
Is it really vile? Are we attributing too much to the sort of thing a silly little boy would say, perhaps? I mean, as feet go I’d say this woman had handsome feet, but each to their own.
… It’s probably not much relevant either way lol, but still, you’re more than welcome to express your opinion on this lady’s feet, or anyone’s feet for that matter, provided it isn’t offensively derogatory. And tbh this comment was pretty damn mild compared to many of the ‘nationality and politically inappropriate’ comments you take far less issue with, Judith.
In actual fact, I’d say this forum suffers from very little sexism overall, as compared to some other places. There was a silly sexist comment the other day, but tbh I thought the perspective was so limited it rather moderated itself, so I let it through.
Perhaps we shouldn’t quibble back and forth about mild infringements like this on any subject, and just correct the balance ourselves by addressing the OP in a comment of our own (rather than admin)? This forum works a lot better when it self moderates!! A2
I have no idea what you are talking about with regard to feet.
Perhaps I took the “bang you out” comment the wrong way?
The comment, with the photo, IS sexist.
And there have been many other comments quite vile, not sexist. One person posted a photo of human excrement in one article.
Personally, Admin, I think you pick and choose admonishments, and you always choose on the side of nationality.
I know things will not change here, and I already take responsibility for skipping over comments that I know will be F rants and the like, but sometimes I just have to express the disappointment.
And perhaps at some time just stop reading all together.
I am not quibbling, by the way. I don’t quibble.
And if we are going to self-moderate, then fair enough – level the playing field and don’t comment anymore when you don’t like or agree with a view. ?
Oh I thought you were referring to the op! I understand better now.
Judith, do you post as any other identities here?
Get a life!
Already old Twiggy looked unhealthy…
I beg your finest pardon.
.
In the original book, Toffler mentioned the rise of the level of stimuli people were used to. This is what anti-social media and others exploit. The vast majority are addicted.
Maybe Toffler should have called his book ‘Future Lock.’
Because that’s where we are today.
• Locked onto our screens.
• Locked into 9-5 slavery.
• Locked into corporate and political spin.
• Locked into debt.
• Locked into consumerism.
• Locked in Smart Cities.
• Locked into a state of ennui.
Did I miss any?
Locked into sniping at it all through an anonymous keyboard…
Sniping or clarifying?
Those working only 9-5 are now rare, IMO. Many at low pay struggle with multiple jobs, leaving their children without supervision. The food they can afford is good only for the profits of the medical industry.
At the high end, almost all (maybe except in government) are on the leash of the phone. They work long, variable (on call) or late hours. Many cannot escape even on vacation. In 2016, 745,000 people, who had worked beyond the recommended 54 hours/week, died of stroke or heart disease. This is called koroshi in Japan. IMO, as in the covid scam, the major danger was stress and not physical exhaustion.
The leeches in charge cannot help themselves, though studies show that productivity improves if the work is limited to
-. 40 hours/week or less
-. 6 hours/day for “knowledge” employees, or 8 hours for others
-. a break of 15-20 minutes after every stretch of 50-60 minutes of work.
.
Barbara Ehrenreich documented the crime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed
Poor vulnerable guys, forced to work…every day to get shelter and food.
Mommyyyiiiiiii, mom?
We’ve been this way before computers.
Back then, people were locked onto TV and radio and religion.
Society has always been tarded.
Yeah, but those three traps weren’t in our pockets.
“Never spank da divine women’s
innocent buttcheeks again, strictly
forbidden, because sexist abuse!”
https://archive.is/lKvk8
A divine woman would unlikely be gagging for it (unlike some others). I’m guessing that’s the essential point?
Interesting question that puts “culture”
(learned) versus biology (innate) to the
test. Doesn’t every woman long to be do-
minated by a man, especially the “diva”?
Asked differently: Do we belong to the
animal kingdom (“primates”), or are we
a “divine” species? If the latter is true,
why is the world a zoo ruled by monkeys?
You have different ways to see. The world you see is your the ‘fruits’ of your choosing.
The monkey trap operates a-tempt to GET or possess and control that reflects back a state of subjection to dispossession and control.
We are two species here.
One specie claim they come from the apes, developed into a Neanderthal man, to man of today, and future into a gender melting transvestite new being.
Professors Darwin, Huxley and Lamarck back this up.
Second specie claim it got life from God through a breath into dust.
Pope Frances and Cardinals and Royals back this up.
We suppose both specie knows about their origin so we just accept their origin from the apes. Ok? Here is yr father man. 1000_F_529120545_257T4JQXh6tKKLAJMuRFWsqv9a235lZG.jpg (1000×667)
Even the so-called “humanism,” which
denies any kind of “divinity,” turns out
on closer inspection to be a mechanism
of exclusion that denies animals the ca-
pacity for soulfulness. Yet we know that
(at least “pets”) are often more “human”
than “humans!” That’s why I dare to ask
the counter-question: How many “divine
women” have you encountered in your li-
fe so far (and remained faithful to you!)?
You are – of course – free to answer this
not in “biological,” but in “cultural” terms!
You only meet the divine, but your masking rules and filters can repackage your guilted fear conflicts as ‘a fallen’ nature.
That you CAN operate creative choices relative to your world is not simply problem solving, but can be reduced to that within a monkey trap mindset.
The self-proclaimed Australian “National Socialist” Sewell defames in Henrik Palmgren’s stream well-founded doubts about the authenticity of the alleged Bondi ‘massacre’ as “schizo conspiracies” [sic]. Apparently, he suddenly considers the ZOG media to be absolutely credible (which, on closer inspection, is quite “schizo” in itself).
Or he prefers to exploit the case “to illustrate the danger of Muslim immigration” because his people in Australia are now under so much pressure that they are resorting to hypocrisy as a protective claim and opportunistically siding with the lying press. That was too irrational for me, and I turned it off after 5 seconds.
He owes us an explanation as to what this has to do with “schizo” (a term from psychiatry, the definition of which he probably doesn’t even know), and why he shouldn’t be taken for a ride in such a cheap way, because he can’t offer one. However, “schizo” is a word that his people certainly hear frequently as a reproach, a projection that he can now conveniently apply to others.
People do not understand the dynamics and procedures of such fake “terrorist attacks.” Let’s assume that someone makes a lot of noise by firing loud blank cartridges from military stockpiles near a crowd of people, and at the same time (as if “guided by magic”) 15 of the 25 crisis actors present fall down, activating their implanted blood ampoules, then the crowd of uninvolved bystanders will flee as if controlled by herd instinct, because they have now linked the loud bangs as a trigger with the alleged “victims.”
Back at the scene of the incident, only the crisis actors remain, including their colleagues with their fake “rescue measures” and, of course, the already well-known “witnesses,” who are then interviewed everywhere by the lying journalists, as are the strangely fearless smartphone video makers who also happened to be on site at the same time.
https://rumble.com/v733cts-leaked-docs-reveal-bondi-beach-false-flag-was-mossad-operation-to-kill-firs.html
https://odysee.com/@Lateralus1:1/The-Dreidel-Deception–Fake-Mass-Shooting-in-Bondi,-Australia:8
https://www.bitchute.com/video/uf3mmxrLqb7Y
https://www.bitchute.com/video/OqRBdVioGfz6
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ty5oB2CYxcGx
https://www.bitchute.com/video/o8xwb6YoM9ly
https://www.bitchute.com/video/uV20GseyyvFV
https://www.bitchute.com/video/dgbspTx5z4Kq
https://www.bitchute.com/video/1lfReOiJJjNx
Mark Collett also believes in the authenticity of the Bondi “massacre.” For him, the only thing that matters is who benefits from it; whether the recordings are conclusive, logical, and genuine is clearly not his bread and butter.
https://rumble.com/v736vws-was-the-bondi-attack-a-false-flag.html
Question is: Why bother faking it when the ‘bread and butter’ of the ruling psychopaths is murder and mayhem.
After all, the biggest business on the planet is war.
I don’t understand the, let’s say, “meaning”
of your question right now. Where is the fun-
damental conflict here that needs to be re-
solved? Or are you just creating it yourself?
Some things nowadays seem strange to me.
…Perhaps you are just expressing yourself in
an extremely “indirect” way. In any case, I am
very excited to hear your intellectual insights!
I detect a sliver of sarcasm in your comment.
OK ask yourself why you don’t attack directly, but through a complex social masking persona.
I’m dubious of the presentation delivered within your first link above – the WatchmenForTruth channel on Rumble.
In the middle of his editorial, the presenter pauses to hawk a product on behalf of Chuck Norris; evidently a sponsor of the channel.
Chuck Norris has long participated in films which malign and scapegoat the Arab and Muslim community. The enemies in many of his films (i.e. “Delta Force”) are consistently fictional Arab/Muslim terrorists. In fact, you can run a simple Internet search to find articles and images of the American martial arts icon visiting with Israeli dignitaries. Norris has purportedly filmed advertisements endorsing Netanyahu.
While I cannot confirm if the Bondi Beach event might have been a false flag, I am inclined to believe that Israeli intelligence, and agents acting on behalf of Israeli intelligence, would be happy to advance the notion that Bondi Beach was a staged event, or false flag, for its currency in promoting anti-Semitism.
Bruce Lee kicked the crab out of Norris.
This may well be why Bruce Lee was assassinated… for his martial anti-Semitism!
🙂 Merry Christmas Erik.
Henrik Palmgren’s a conspiracy theorist turned political believer in 2015
with his CIA operative dyed hair girlie.
Many old people, in lieu of having families, find themselves banding together to help one another–almost as if by accident. The individualistic ethos they grew up with, however, prevents them from really getting out there and working totally together. Would that they could.
I believe it is just generally a case of being ‘out there’ in your local street/neighborhood. Others will know if/when you’ve been out and some (more observant types) will even miss you when you’re gone. Even if you just stood on your doorstep greeting passersby randomly
Heaven forfend anybody being “influenced by heterosexual norms.”
Do we get the great rug pull before Christmas or later? I need to know whether to buy pot noodles for Christmas dinner, eaten by candlelight in the cold silence with my nuclear family.
What does this even mean?
I don’t see extended families coming together to offer this. There are extended families who go into business, but they are often from backgrounds where the family unit is culturally important. Nothing to do with technology, just good old-fashioned family values.
True, if the definition of love includes swipe left or swipe right Tinder style. Or increasing the pool of prospective partners through online dating. The divorce rate should be crashing since internet dating has been around for 20 or so years in a big way and people should therefore be able to find their perfect match from the millions of potential partners available, yet divorces are increasing. Clearly it is a case of quantity, not quality.
Social media hasn’t created many new networks of real-life friends, it has atomised people, who instead are more likely to live out lives of virtual friendships with acquaintances. Where the network does include real world friends it often has reduced the in-person socializing to trite ‘likes’ and comments online.
Technology has not increased harmonious social interactions based on real world shared experiences. It is, if anything more often than not, doing the opposite.
Staying home has become the new ‘going out’ and shallow relationships replace deeper connected ones.
The term ‘system’ is a variant of ‘family’.
Systems thinking or cybernetics is the shaping cultural paradigm of the current collectivisation under ‘controls’ that operate almost invisibly (as internalised conditioning).
The Family Conflict has migrated to systemised technological controls. Its all there – un-healed, active and running for the most part dark.
THE ABOVE PHOTO SAYS A LOT/
BUT SO DID LAST SATURDAY;
Deluded 1.1
Just a common sense reminder that if you bring your cell phone to the STOP DIGITAL ID march, you will be tracked, scanned, and added to multiple lists.
What a c 🚾 nt needing to do live videos on 5G smart phone telling everyone how opposed they are to DIGITAL ID.
Right. So I left it at home. Where does that leave world progress?
You wont stop the making of lists for tagged ‘identities’.
The DigID is more about a blockchained single ledger of interoprability – across the spectrum of activities as validated and permitted transaction.
If your cursor is frozen, you are locked out of your interface.
There can be many ‘incentivising’ variants of exclusion or penalty – along with sweeteners or boosters for compliance.
The word cottage was also used to induce council house acceptance in the first suburbs around London.
PR puts on the ‘best face’ to achieve the goal or outcome.
I haven’t checked but I suspect Toffler like any other ‘bestselling’ KOL is seeding, groundbaiting and promoting the exploitation of a ‘shock’ economy.
Ie” feed a market in order to grow a captive mindshare that can be shocked into divesting its life to a predatory intent – masking as a seller of ‘solutions’.
Hypocrite
Your have a trannies and gay and dkyes doing vol work in promoting your shit light woke right MSM + mag.
Lead by example rather than moaning like a politician.
Good piece. What does a ‘family’ mean anyway in the modern era?
It means a married man and woman with children, with grandparents nearby to help babysit.
You did it again Aloysius. Why are you always right?
You and your ‘whattabout the ticks”.
True. The idea that there is nothing greater than economic growth – and for individuals to be aligned to wealth generation – isn’t new. It has simply been sharpened.
As long as Schwab gives me gold I am along. n4xj9lk1bnlr.jpg
I see this as incorrect. With technology came comfort. And with the scent of death leaving their nostrils, people discovered personal pleasure. The individual, over the commune. And God left the frame.
Comfort? Comfort to be trapped by “reels” and mass media, told “don’t waste a minute” and given the misconception that life is accelerating.
“And God left the frame”: now there’s your problem, believe it or not, removing any moral framework which has restrained the individual for millennia is a risky future.
Your comment is incongruous with the general philosophy around here, strange? Like you don’t perceive the problem. Hmmmm.