My background is also in tech. I retired, in part, because once I could see the exploitative nature of the industry I couldn't unsee it. For the non tech savvy parents out there, it's worth noting parents that have worked in tech and have a very dismal view of it.
Yes, one finds schools in the core of Silicon Valley that are "low tech" by most standards, in which children aren't given individual iPads/laptops/etc, and which basically refuse "Educational Technology" approaches to learning.
That EdTech has been reliably demonstrated to be nothing more than "Very Profitable for EdTech Companies!" doesn't help any. It does not help learning, it only costs large sums of money for fragile, short lived e-waste. At least a fixed computer lab doesn't have the same early obsolescence profile as portable devices - yet, almost all schools now have laptop carries and classroom iPads (often high end models for no discernible reasons).
I have not yet retired, yet I find myself in an industry I hate the results of and this is an open question as to how soon I can get out.
Remember when it was popular in tech to believe the internet would usher in an era of unprecedented freedom and democracy? This was the late 90s/early 2000s. We believed society would collectively overcome for-profit gatekeepers and overthrow dictators.
Yes, I recall those days. They slipped away so slowly none of us really noticed until they were long gone, or, at times, were making (very good) money on the process.
You probably recognize this:
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
How far we have gotten from that vision.
Yet I look around and the opposite seems more likely. Increasing rates of anxiety, isolation, suicide, anger, and general unhappiness.
Or, as has been regularly noted, "A very good state for influencing people to buy things."
While it's popular to frame a lot of this as late-state capitalism (for which there's a lot of truth), I think a better description is late-stage individualism. We keep doubling down on individualism, at the expense of community and connection and a sense of belonging. Which, of course, is also a great way to hook people on consumerism and the hedonic treadmill.
Indeed. And many of the remaining community options were blown apart by the lockdowns and isolation of 2020-2022.
But, again, as you note, this is a good path to consumerism, to always hoping one can buy ones way out of problems caused by the last things one purchased. If only we do more of what got us here, we can dream that we will get out of it! We can consume our way out of problems caused by consumption! It's nonsense, yet... popular.
Everyone is worried about generative AI taking jobs, which is a valid concern. But I'm more worried about its ability to generate huge amounts of content essentially for free. Bad actors generating massive amounts of misleading information. Propagandists. The ability to generate hyper-realistic videos depicting violence and sex. You think people have body image issues now? Wait until generative AI is combined with algorithms to create a continuous stream of content that grabs attention. It won't take long for us to start normalizing more and more extreme body forms.
Indeed, and to create high amounts of "individually nuanced" articles that are able to influence subtly, over time. Reasons why I use the internet less and less.