“Women started having fewer children, gained more bargaining power in their relationships and enjoyed a higher status."
I'm not buying it. It's true women no longer require a man to pay the bills, but by the same token household appliances mean men don't need women to keep house.
The thrust of the article is probably correct, though. There were a whole lot of changes in the 19th and 20th century that had a bigger effect than the internet, though I think the interviewee glosses over online retailing. You can buy almost everything you need in life over the web now, which is a both a big time saver and a reduction in the number of opportunities to form chance relationships.
I posted the OP but I agree with you...I think the author is jumping to unsupported conclusions. However, I've never really thought about the time saved from washing clothes. In raw amounts of time, it probably has done more (so far) to change society, since individuals at every geographical level need to wash clothes (outside nudist colonies)...whereas it's possible to have a thriving local business/enterprise that does not have an Internet presence...for the time being.
* Also, I think the Internet's benefits are harder to quantify. Everyone can think about how much time and energy they'd spend washing clothes; it's much harder to visualize what you'd be doing without the Internet. For example, the Internet has exposed me to a lot of educational material and distribution channels that has allowed me to explore new career and personal opportunities. It did not necessarily save me time because I may have gone down another thought process entirely without the insights gained.
(and of course, this phenomenon affects those in the information sector disproportionately...just as the washing machine wouldn't affect the change in lifestyle for the upper-class, who may just have to pay more for clotheswashing but may not have a drastic change in lifestyle)
"You can buy almost everything you need in life over the web now"
In 1910 you could buy almost everything you needed in life from the Sears Catalog (seriously, that thing was enormous; you could even buy a complete house as a kit of parts).
“Women started having fewer children, gained more bargaining power in their relationships and enjoyed a higher status."
I'm not buying it. It's true women no longer require a man to pay the bills, but by the same token household appliances mean men don't need women to keep house.
The thrust of the article is probably correct, though. There were a whole lot of changes in the 19th and 20th century that had a bigger effect than the internet, though I think the interviewee glosses over online retailing. You can buy almost everything you need in life over the web now, which is a both a big time saver and a reduction in the number of opportunities to form chance relationships.