Sometimes only the title of an article is enough to hit you like a ton of bricks. When I scrolled to the New York Times’, The Decade Tech Lost Its Way, it grabbed me, and saddened me. I started my business in 2010— I have been in business for 10 years and have watched technology evolve from something I was blindly enthusiastic about, to many products and services that I felt uncomfortable promoting to you.
The article is a bit of a mess (you have to click on various images to get the bubbles to pop up about each ‘moment’ but what unfolds is a story about technology that bounded into territory it couldn’t navigate (Russia), platforms that unwittingly became a host to violence (YouTube), provoked depression and anxiety in teenagers (Instagram), and swayed an election (Facebook). Unrelenting privacy violations, ridiculous wearables (hi, Google Glass) and the realization that we are always— always— being watched.
I fear that this decade will be like the one before— a bunch of companies that have become like air and water to millions of us, putting profits over our personal safety and wellbeing.
I want to be optimistic that maybe things will be different.
