The Big Tech Maelstrom

I needed a new tablet on my limited budget, so I scoured the refurbished stores and got myself an M1 iPad Air and Magic Keyboard for a little over $500. It’s a really nice setup! I want to rave about the little details I love, and get excited about the way Apple does things, but… we don’t really live in that world anymore, do we?

10-15 years ago, I had a little Tumblr tech blog. I enjoyed talking about cool new features and thoughtful design choices, and some people actually liked reading it! It was a great side project for a nerdy kid just out of college.

Back then, we saw the tech industry as polluted with money, sure - but it was a haven for quirky people of all backgrounds, run by seemingly well-meaning oddballs, whose companies were relative havens of diversity and acceptance. The open-source types who told us how twisted this all was? They were just trying to yuck our yum! It wasn’t perfect, but it was cool and exciting and was surely doing more good than harm.

Today? Yikes. They were right all along, weren't they? Every aspect of tech has been poisoned. Instead of making better products, they promote AI vaporware to please shareholders. They’re making it easier to bully minorities and spread misinformation. The companies that so loudly proclaimed their DEI initiatives a few short years before are pretending they never existed. Their CEO’s are on a quest to throw all their money at Trump and block everyone they can from publicly opposing him. And that’s not even mentioning Elon Musk - who was already off the deep end, but in recent years has become so viciously toxic that he’s doing the Hitler salute and saying Hitler is innocent of murder, while nobody is even batting an eye at it - because this is our new normal.

Our world is being battered by a toxic shitstorm, and the tech industry is at the center of the maelstrom. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here with this cool toy they made. When I’m worried about what new executive order is going to screw me next, or whether the economy will implode, there's little joy in singing their praises.

I don't know if the "good ol' days," such as they were, will ever come back. I do know that I'll remember them every time I unbox a new gadget - and then wonder if it was worth the price, in both senses of the term.