There Is No Tech Backlash
This reminds me a bit of the adage “90% of people talk about privacy but only 10% do anything about it.” Maybe this is just emblematic of the depth of dependency (and its dependency in most cases, not addiction) on tech. The deepest I see is people now having an ability to avoid social situations around them by going to their device or using Facebook to connect when they feel they can’t connect to those around them. Deeply entrenched habits are not easily displaced (and remember that you never really lose a habit, it can only be replaced by something else).
It’s fun, and increasingly fashionable, to complain about technology. Our own devices distract us, others’ devices spy on us, social media companies poison public discourse, new wired objects violate our privacy, and all of this contributes to a general sense of runaway change careening beyond our control. No wonder there’s a tech backlash.
But, really, is there?There certainly has beentalk of a backlash, for a couple of years now. Politicians have discussed regulating big tech companies more tightly. Fines have been issued, breakups called for. A tech press once dedicated almost exclusively to gadget lust and organizing conferences that trot out tech lords for the rest of us to worship has taken on a more critical tone; a drumbeat of exposés reveal ethically and legally dubious corporate behavior. Novels and movies paint a skeptical or even dystopian picture of where tech is taking us. We all know people who have theatrically quit this or that social media service, or announced digital sabbaticals. And, of course, everybody kvetches, all the time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/opinion/tech-backlash.html