It’s safe to say that I’m in a state of disillusionment regarding big tech companies. As someone who was around for the early days of the web, I witnessed the dawn of a new era. One that held so much promise. One that was supposed to spread democracy and freedom of expression.
Pioneers like Mark Zuckerberg were here to change the world in the early 2000s. The tools and platforms they created connected us in ways we never imagined. It was out with the old industrial complex and in with a kinder and gentler brand of capitalism. We were promised a sort of Utopian human experience.
Tech companies weren’t shy about being different. Remember those stories touting the fun atmosphere at companies like Google? Employees were supposedly treated like royalty and had access to everything a geek could want.
I count myself as being very naive in those days. I bought the sales pitch. There was just so much good to be done. Tech visionaries seemed like the right people to create such change.
Well, how’s that working out?
It’s About Growth – Consequences Be Damned
I can’t speak to Zuckerberg or anyone else’s intentions. Maybe their hearts were in the right place at the start. Perhaps it’s our culture of expectations that got to them.
Big companies, regardless of sector, are expected to create perpetual growth. It’s one reason a firm can make billions of dollars and still have layoffs. People losing their jobs is a casualty of this vicious cycle.
That also leads to mining untapped areas of revenue. We see it in algorithms that prefer content we’re more likely to react to even if it serves to divide us.
Controversial advertisements are also part of the strategy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve closed an offensive ad on Elon Musk’s X in recent months. Like magic, they reappear almost immediately. It’s probably not a coincidence.
Protections like fact-checking and muting are jettisoned and deemed unnecessary. They’re merely roadblocks that make us think rather than scroll and argue. User reactions are worth more than accuracy or safeguards.
We see it across the social media landscape. It also extends to hardware, search, and e-commerce giants as well. Shareholders demand growth and companies will go to great lengths to provide it.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Throwing your users under the bus for the sake of profit seems short-sighted. If users go, so does your market.
However, it’s not quite that simple. Some users will leave for other platforms or decide to go off the grid (as much as you can these days). It’s probably not enough to impact a company’s thinking.
Like it or not, our culture is glued to social media and technology. Our teenagers aren’t giving up their iPhones (neither are our grandparents). We’re so used to that dopamine hit that comes from these connections that it will be hard to detox.
That’s what Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. are counting on. We’ll put up with whatever we have to because their products are central to our lives. We’ve already signed away our privacy – what’s left to lose?
I’m afraid to ask.