ATM was not widely accepted and was seen as nothing more than an unnecessary piece of machinery made only to complicate banking. Its safety was put into question, and many feared that they would lose their money. To prove to people that the ATM received their money, a small camera inside took a photograph of the cash entering the machine. The photograph was then given to the depositor as a form of receipt. However, this was not enough to convince people to use the machines. First people to use ATMs were gamblers and prostitutes- people who did not want to met the cashier, later a snowstorm that forced people to use ATMs solved the problem.

The first trains fell under the scrutiny of physicians who claimed that the “high speed” at which they traveled was abnormal for the human body and could make a person run mad. The Royal Bavarian Medical College even supported the claim that people who rode in trains could end up with a type of brain fever that was not limited to people who rode in trains alone, onlookers and passersby who were unfortunate enough to see a train pass by could also end up with it.

Furbies are furry toys with large eyes and ears that repeat whatever someone says to them. They first appeared in the US in 1998 and were an instant hit. The National Security Agency banned them from its Maryland office because they feared that they were being used to spy on the agency. They also feared that since Furbies repeated what they heard, they could expose government secrets when their owners took them home by simply repeating what they heard at work.

Early American anti-novelists likened novels to poison and opium, using words like “foolish” and “worthless” to describe them. To them, novels were nothing but books that gave people an untrue illusion of life. They feared that novels, most especially romance novels, could make people behave abnormally and misjudge other people’s behavior. Other than that the novels were supposed to make women unfaithful to husbands.

The invention of the telephone in 1876 was met with enthusiasm and confusion, some people feared that the telephone would discourage people from visiting their friends, and destroy moral values. Aside from these unnecessary fears, there were also some real concerns about privacy. Before people began installing telephones in their houses, they had to go to general stores and other public places to use a public phone. Even when switchboards came along, people said switchboard operators could listen to people’s calls, and so could their neighbors, who often shared telephone lines with them.

Female bicycle riders. Women were heavily discouraged from riding bicycles with strict warnings that they could end up with depression, heart problems, and several other nonexistent health issues. In fact, a newspaper went as far as publishing 41 bizarre and funny rules that female riders were to observe while riding. They were advised not to wear a man’s cap, not to condemn other people because of their legs, not to refuse other people’s assistance when going uphill, not to chew gum, not to scream when they see a cow, not to get a “bicycle face,” and to always ride with their sewing kit. “Bicycle face” was termed a medical risk. It was said to leave women with stiffened jaws, exhaustion, serious wrinkles, tightened lips, and a funny-looking face with the eyes almost bursting out of their sockets. It was claimed that men were also at risk of the bicycle face, but women were at more risk because they were not as good as men at cycling. Besides, the average man would not mind ending up with bicycle face, since he cared less about his looks.

People in the past didn’t just fear electricity because of its ability to electrocute and kill. They also feared it for several reasons, including its perceived ability to cause diseases. The undesirable results of frequent exposure to X-rays by X-ray operators compounded people’s fear of electricity, and Thomas Edison’s experiments, which promoted the use of electricity to kill humans and animals, didn’t help.

Emo, meaning a combination of emotional hardcore rock and punk, is a music genre that first appeared in the Unites States in 1980. In 2003, it made it to Russia, where it soon developed a large following. In 2008, Russian legislators, concerned that emo caused depression and antisocial behaviors and led to suicide, moved to pass a law to heavily censor emo websites and stop people dressed in emo fashion from entering schools and government installations. They claimed that the emo style was a social danger and a threat to the stability of Russia. Research later showed that emo, as well as all other types of music, does not cause depression or change in mood.

Back in the 1920s, people feared that automobiles encouraged teenagers to have sex, commit crimes, and disobey their parents. College lecturers also feared that automobiles distracted students from learning and gave girls unlimited freedom, leading them to consequently drop out of school. This fear was so real that by 1927, 17 of the 35 top US colleges banned students from bringing cars to schools. The fear of people having sex in cars was real. Research revealed that unmarried youths frequently engaged in such encounters in vehicles instead of the common practice of meeting at the girl’s house or in a more public place. In fact, it was found that half of the girls who had been having sex in the 1950s had been doing so in cars.

Twister. The 1960s was a time when men and women were not expected to be very close to each other except when they were dancing. Twister not only brought them close; it made them intertwine with each other in eye-raising positions. This made many, including several Milton Bradley executives, believe that the game was indecent and had a sexual undertone. People doubted if it could even be played by children, and competitors referred to it as “sex in a box.” Milton Bradley was about to give up on it when the public relations company handling Twister’s promotion featured it on the Tonight Show, where host Johnny Carson played it with actress Eva Gabor. Although the both of them were intertwined during the game, the fun that they had removed the misconception that the game promoted sex. The next day, lots of people lined up at Abercrombie & Fitch to buy the game, and the rest is history.