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The Phantom Tech Backlash

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 1 min read

Opinion | There Is No Tech Backlash - The New York Times

But everybody’s complaining about technology all the time — there’s nothing more on-trend than lamenting our ephemeral hashtag culture. So it’s easy to believe that there really is a roiling tech backlash that will somehow head off any dystopian outcomes, while we lean back and ask Alexa whether it’s raining.

Anecdotally this checks out with me. There is definitely talk, especially online, about grumpiness with tech, but few people seem to actually be changing their behavior. My relatives still use Facebook as their #1 website and communication platform despite countless scandals, Twitter continues to be maybe the most important site for public communication despite making so many people feel bad all the time, and we all pay for Amazon Prime and buy Echos despite their privacy and worker controversies.