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Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

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Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#121

Post by m463 »

netsharc wrote: post #98
mrweasel wrote: post #38

I can't actually think of a single piece of tech made in the past ten years that has improved my life, at least not without large downsides. There's some embedded stuff, like lane assist or adaptive cruise control in my car, that I like, but the package as a whole... not really much of an improvement. It's not really bad as such that the tech industry want to attempt to make a smart home, or add software to a product…

> lane assist or adaptive cruise control in my car The hilarious thing is that the EU decided that the assisting must be mandatory, and so now every time you turn on your 2024 or newer car, lane assist and "you're speeding!" warnings are turned on. At least there's still a way to turn them off/getting in the car means sit down, seat belt, mirrors, turn on the engine, go to settings and switch off the nanny modes...

this is leaking down to identity matching

https://electrek.co/2026/07/06/tesla-cabin-camera-fsd-identi...

and maybe:

https://www.notateslaapp.com/software-updates/upcoming-featu...

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#122

Post by m463 »

therobots927 wrote: post #69
nyeah wrote: post #29

Yeah. "Hate": https://www.kapwing.com/blog/why-does-the-public-hate-the-te... Re the linked piece, I'm concerned about people saying "they hate us" when they really mean "they disagree with us" or "they seem skeptical of what we say." It can easily become click bait. The language changes, sure ... but equating disagreement with the emotion of hatred? Maybe that language change is a bad idea? Just spitballing here.

I think hate is the perfect word.

I agree.

For a normal person, when your day is pop-ups, cookie dialogs, dark patterns, auto-opt-in, + "Accept", subscriptions, smartphone-only ordering and customer service and endless-monetization...

...why use weaker words?

of course, if you're working or starting a tech company, you cannot use strong words. You might alienate your many funding sources.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#124

Post by red-iron-pine »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #106
simianwords wrote: post #31

Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them. I posit that the reasons are - the need for conservatism and slowing down progress is inherent in people. Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. Its the same mode of opposition, people just don't like chaotic progress. - people who have good jobs…

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology Wut? None of those 3 things are like the others. This is gibberish.

parent poster is doing what is known as 'deflection' and is trying to upend the conversation my bringing in mostly-unrelated hot-button topics, like gender, racism, and other terms that elicit strong reactions.

or they're just idiots, but with 50% of the internet being bots who can say?

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#125

Post by red-iron-pine »

petcat wrote: post #27
luco17 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hairdressing/beauticians

In the words of Hank Hill, "some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to go to beauty school."

This specific quote actually belongs to Luanne Platter

"I learned something really important at college today. I don't wanna be there! Some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to go to beauty school. And I'm in beauty school!"

(who says AI is useless?)

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#126

Post by JuniperMesos »

watwut wrote: post #67
simianwords wrote: post #31

Hating the tech industry is mainly seen amongst the first world countries and the rich educate, high status people amongst them. I posit that the reasons are - the need for conservatism and slowing down progress is inherent in people. Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. Its the same mode of opposition, people just don't like chaotic progress. - people who have good jobs…

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. The attacks on and hate of trans people are on the rise. There seem to be literal strategy of preventing blacks and women from career rise in military and government. And all of these are enabled and helped by tech. The radicalization and hate grows due to our algorithms. > tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and ag…

[flagged]

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#127

Post by simianwords »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #126
watwut wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. The attacks on and hate of trans people are on the rise. There seem to be literal strategy of preventing blacks and women from career rise in military and government. And all of these are enabled and helped by tech. The radicalization and hate grows due to our algorithms. > tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and ag…

[flagged]

> Both of these phenomena are contemporary American poltical currents, and don't have much to do with the tech industry in and of itself.

The mode of opposition against culture change to benefit these groups is the same mode of opposition against technology. Both exist to preserve status quo - to keep the same hierarchies.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#128

Post by Legend2440 »

therobots927 wrote: post #70
CM30 wrote: post #32

I think there are a few reasons to note here: 1. Tech is associated with a lot of the issues affecting society right now, while other business sectors often aren't. Data centres and the rising price of computer components, social media addiction, gambling apps, surveillance, etc. These are all things in the news or affecting people's daily lives, and the 'tech industry' tends to get the blame for them. 2. Many of the…

I beg to differ on point 3. The media has been extremely accommodating to the AI evangelists.

We reading the same media here? All the major tech news publications like the Verge or ArsTechnica take a highly skeptical tone towards AI.

Nearly every major newspaper company is actively suing AI companies over copyright infringement. They have been quite outspoken that they see Google's AI overviews as an existential threat to their business.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#129

Post by [deleted] »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #117
nyeah wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, of course. I'm trying to draw a distinction between disagreement and hate. I'm not trying to eliminate either one.

i can disagree with my friend's opinion about if a cake is tasty. i can disagree with my neighbor's opinion that his wife is pretty or his kids are smart. i hate entrenched capital that is trying to obliterate my ability to work, and which will leave me to starve, and which is very, very blunt about how little they care about us.

[deleted]

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#130

Post by AIorNot »

As someone who has worked in tech for over 20 years, I think the backlash against modern technology is not hard to understand.

A few things stand out:

The social isolation of the digital age. We spend more time staring into phones than looking each other in the eye. The polarization created and amplified by social media platforms. The spread of disinformation, radicalization, and algorithmically optimized outrage. A developer and founder culture that is still heavily male-coded, often morally shallow, and too quick to treat empathy as weakness or inefficiency. The hype-and-hustle economy that startup culture has helped normalize inside American hyper-capitalism. The robber barons of earlier generations have been replaced by tech bros, growth hackers, and social media personalities who are often rewarded more for manipulation than for building anything durable. The erosion of the middle class and the normalization of unstable gig work, especially for Gen Z and millennials, leading to a lower standard of living for many younger Americans. Crypto, and the amount of fraud, speculation, and wasted energy that came with it. Now AI: not just the technology itself, but the way it is being funded, marketed, and deployed, often with little regard for human creativity, labor, consent, or meaning.

Yes, this is a negative list. Technology has obviously produced enormous good as well.

But it says something important that many younger people increasingly experience modern tech not as liberation, but as addiction, surveillance, manipulation, and spiritual exhaustion.

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