The article focuses on the history of so-called media panics, i.e. emotionally charged reactions on the appearance of new media. Tracing “la longue dure” of panics overprint, film and computer media and taking examples from Britain, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, the author argues that media panics are intrinsic and recurrent features of modernity. They represent a complex constellation of generational, cultural and existential power struggles through which adults seek to negotiate definitions of character forming (“Bildung”) in order to balance fundamental dilemmas of modernity.