Batman in the Seventies

Batman in the Seventies is a collection of Batman stories from the 1970s. I got this book to get a good understanding of information technology in the 1970s, but the only information technology moment I could find is in the story "Marriage: Impossible" from Detective Comics #407 written by Frank Robbins and Neal Adams. Batman gives Francie (the future bride of Kirk Langstrom) his number on a piece of paper if she is ever in trouble. This is a step down from giving her a personal communications device.

So, why the lack of information technology in the 1970s? Dennis O'Neil in the book's introduction explains the approach taken for the 1970s Batman:

"Enter, here, Julius Schwartz, now editor emeritus and the Grand Old Man of comics, then editor of the Batman magazines. Julie no longer remembers whether he was told to change Batman's direction or just decided it had to be done. Whatever the reason, he encouraged two of the newer kids hanging around the office - who, I may as well quickly admit, were Neal Adams and me - to try something different. For openers, I eliminated any hint of camp from the scripts, and Neal drew a Batman who exuded power and determination. We were both trying for what lit critics call "magic realism," defined by The Random House Dictionary as "a style...of literature in which (the) fantastic and imaginary...are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner." The enterprise was predicated on a big If: if Batman could exist, this is how he would be. The approach worked, and is still working."

Another great passage from O'Neil: "Truth is, Batman has been continuously evolving since his first creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, graced DETECTIVE COMICS with "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" in May, 1939. That may be why he remains as popular now as he was in that long-ago day, before television, before computers, before video games and movies - on-tape and digital watches and pocket calculators, DNA testing, polio vaccine, nuclear power, Pokemon, Teflon, the moon landing and...a hundred other miracles - a thousand! - we take for granted. The world has changed, perhaps more in the last 50 years than in the previous 500, and Batman has changed with it. If he hadn't, he'd be a relic, remembered by nostalgia freaks and pop-culture experts, and not a vigorous, viable ongoing work of fiction."