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Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

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51–60 of 127 posts

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#51

can we not conflate facebook.com and twitter with big tech? big tech is driving many of the technological advancements that have brought a new era of economic prosperity and growth to the world. hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs, tools for small businesses, a wealth of high quality information at our fingertips, the likes of which was one generation ago unimaginable. tech is like humanity's one hope.

> tech is like humanity's one hope.

It's funny, because despite constant warfare, plagues, nasty ideologies, etc. the last time at which mankind was basically guaranteed to endure was before the industrial use of tech. Since then we've had world wars, the atomic bomb and its scare, global warming, accelerated biodiversity collapse, and it seems we can't pass a new day without discovering a new things which we rely on that is endangered.

Sure, I'm having lots of fun with tech, and I hope we can leverage it reasonably to improve our condition, but this technological religion that puts tech on a pedestal above critics really causes more harm than good. Many other technological advances that came before have required heavy regulation, and from the point of view of users, that evolution has been a progress rather than a regression.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#52
post #32

Apple sells devices and consumer services. Microsoft sells an OS and Office suite to businesses. Amazon is a retail marketplace and a cloud operator. Nvidia sells graphics cards. Adobe sells graphics software. Netflix makes movies and TV. Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments all design chipsets. Salesforce sells CRM. Oracle, IBM, Cisco and the like all sell various business services. Go down the list of big tec…

A lot of the companies you mentioned have non trivial investments in ads. I recently was surprised to find how big of an ad business Adobe has for example. Not sure that these companies would cease to exist if it weren’t for advertising but ads do influence these companies’ products.

Everyone has an investment in ads. Think news media, movies, TV, fashion, your local grocery store, a bus with a billboard on its side. That's just how the world runs. If you want to hold it against them then you are basically ranting against all of capitalism rather than anything specific to "big tech".

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#53

There are similarities, just exchange lung cancer with suicides among teens. Big Tech must take its responsibility more seriously and not pretend it's not their fault.

The difference is that smoking is clearly linked with lung cancer, established by heaps of clear scientific data. The link between social media and suicide is pretty weak by comparison.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#54
post #29

I'm more concerned about Big Food as the new Big Tabacco. You don't get cancer consuming tech products as much as you get from Big "food".

I'm seeing religion that way. It's hard to go to dinner without the prayer drifting over from other tables, and even in LA most restaurants don't have no prayer zones yet. We have known for years that it's not good for anyone, but they have tough lobbyists, so getting rid of the problem just seems impossible. We all accept somehow that sports figures and celebrities endorse the product - they're adults. We accept tha…

Huh? Where do you live that people pray at restaurants loudly enough to distract you, lol

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#55

Been saying this for years, the only reason these companies' execs aren't in prison is because they grease all the right palms, and provide enough "studies" those greased palms can use to plausibly justify their behavior.

In prison on what charges?

In the US it's illegal to imprison someone based purely on vibes, and you can't make things crimes retroactively. (See Article I, Section 9 of the constitution; in particular the parts concerning habeas corpus, bills of attainder, and ex post facto laws.)

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#56
It’s not a popular opinion, but I think the negative impacts of social media are overstated and unconvincing. You can get a big dopamine hit from meditation or as a response to stress but you don’t see kids running to Buddhist monasteries in droves or rushing to the stress of public speaking.

It’s probably not healthy to live your entire life online, which is what youth are encouraged to do by everyone around them, and that alone is enough of a problem and I don’t think technology companies are to blame.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#57
post #32

Apple sells devices and consumer services. Microsoft sells an OS and Office suite to businesses. Amazon is a retail marketplace and a cloud operator. Nvidia sells graphics cards. Adobe sells graphics software. Netflix makes movies and TV. Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments all design chipsets. Salesforce sells CRM. Oracle, IBM, Cisco and the like all sell various business services. Go down the list of big tec…

The most important word in the phrase is “big” not “tech”.

The problem with these firms is they have too much concentrated power, which they obtained through anti-competitive practices that are now cemented into the business model.

This is bad for society and it’s imperative on society to break up these entities and the power they wield as it’s incompatible with a democratic society.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#58

Gonna risk the downvotes and qualify that I am a parent who keeps social media away from my kids: what big tech is peddling is IMHO not on the level of addiction, carcinogenicity and all cause mortality as smoking. It's up to me to raise a mentally resilient kid, part of which is limiting their screen time, but it is not something I cut out altogether. It's not like I have some special parenting power to protect thei…

I made a terrible mistake with my children at the dawn of social media. I would love it if you contacted me because I think you’re generally on the right course.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#59
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the companies you mentioned have non trivial investments in ads. I recently was surprised to find how big of an ad business Adobe has for example. Not sure that these companies would cease to exist if it weren’t for advertising but ads do influence these companies’ products.

Everyone has an investment in ads. Think news media, movies, TV, fashion, your local grocery store, a bus with a billboard on its side. That's just how the world runs. If you want to hold it against them then you are basically ranting against all of capitalism rather than anything specific to "big tech".

> Everyone has an investment in ads. ... That's just how the world runs.

Sure and some people take issue with aspects of how the world runs and want to discuss it.

> If you want to hold it against them then you are basically ranting...

Bold to state that making a critique of the status quo automatically amounts to "ranting".

> ...against all of capitalism rather than anything specific to "big tech".

It is not unreasonable to critique capitalism.

Re: Big Tech as the New Big Tobacco

#60
post #40
post #32

Apple sells devices and consumer services. Microsoft sells an OS and Office suite to businesses. Amazon is a retail marketplace and a cloud operator. Nvidia sells graphics cards. Adobe sells graphics software. Netflix makes movies and TV. Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments all design chipsets. Salesforce sells CRM. Oracle, IBM, Cisco and the like all sell various business services. Go down the list of big tec…

That ship has sailed. “Tech” is simply a positioning or branding term. Meta and Amazon are businesses that depend on developing technology (so are true tech companies as much as NVIDIA or Apple) but nowadays “tech” merely means at best “online”. Most so-called “tech” companies don’t actually develop any technology at all, often being less technical than a non-“tech” company like, say, State Farm. The term has become…

My personal test for this is: what percentage of the company's total value is comprised of the intellectual property their software source code holds.

The higher the percentage the more of a "tech" company you are - the lower the more "traditional" you are.

No company will ever be 100% - all companies have other assets that are worth money and even a company that sells software as its main product might have lots of value tied up in their brand or their sales book of business.

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