What the Narrative on Tech ‘Backlash’ Gets Wrong
There is no tech backlash, the New York Times tells us; a statement met with sighs of vindication in some corners of the internet, in which invocations of an “invented narrative” sum up the minority view — albeit a vocal one — against the increasing prevalence of technology criticism in parts of the mainstream and left commentariat. In the last quarter, according to the Times, Facebook “added about a million new daily users in the United States alone”, and the implication appears to be that it’s time we all woke up and smelled the coffee: people want and like technology, and there are no signs of us slowing down our embrace of it. Get with the programme, the argument goes, and acknowledge that the wrinkles and inconveniences we’re forced to undergo as a trade-off in our use of these technologies — the lack of privacy, the frantic compulsion to check and click on feeds, the way our behaviour is being constantly monitored and modified by vast monopoly interests — are simply bumps in the road on the way to a harmonious utopia of constant connectivity, a mere blip ahead of the coming technological salvation.
Only, it’s not that simple. Use of, and attitudes to, technology do not necessarily correspond — especially in an age in which our lives, careers, not to mention our sense of social belonging, are increasingly predicated on being connected, on the need to…
