Technologies Of Consumer Labor A History Of Selfservice Michael Palm by Michael Palm 9781317287209, 1317287207 instant download after payment.

This book documents and examines the history of technology used by consumers to serve oneself. The telephone’s development as a self-service technology functions as the narrative spine, beginning with the advent of rotary dialing eliminating most operator services and transforming every local connection into an instance of self-service. Today, nearly a century later, consumers manipulate 0–9 keypads on a plethora of digital machines. Throughout the book Palm employs a combination of historical, political-economic, and cultural analysis to describe how the telephone keypad was absorbed into business models across media, retail, and financial industries as the interface on everyday machines including the ATM, cell phone, and debit card reader. He argues that the naturalization of self-service telephony shaped consumers’ attitudes and expectations about digital technology. 

Michael Palm is Assistant Professor of Media and Technology Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.