THE SOCIAL EFFECT OF BICYCLING
[ A rare long-text post, below’s an article that appeared in the British magazine The Spectator in 1896. It’s an interesting slice of history, societal change (and resistance to it in conservative circles), and even then, a concern about the “filter bubble”] BICYCLING will, we believe, within a few years produce social effects of some importance. The notion that it is a “mere fashion” or “craze,” like the skating on little wheels which some years ago led to an investment of scores of thousands of pounds in a speculation that proved absolutely futile, is, we are convinced, a pure delusion. The bicycle has greatly added to human power, and will no more be given up by those who have once learned to use it than horse-riding will be given up or travelling by railway. The number of those who cycle increases day by day, as the objections raised by prejudice or custom disappear, none of those who acquire the art show the slightest disposition to give up the practice, and the probability is that in a very short time it will become far more popular than riding or swimming, or even walking for amusement ever has been. ...
