Tech News Has Gotten Religious. It Shouldn’t Be.
As I shared just last week, I’ve recently began a new podcast called Internet Friends with my good friend Jon Mitchell. It’s set up to explore not only technology, but the way that technology is shaping the world in 2018. It’s led to some interesting conversations, and we’re just getting started.
In this week’s episode, we discussed the almost mythic nature of the tech companies which are dominating our lives and our news cycles. As we talked, I asked Jon to describe why the tech news industry had begun to feel wrong to him, and I thought his answer was on target. As he said:
One of the things that quickly became frustrating to me is how religious it got, and I use that word loaded with a lot of meaning. You and I both have uses of that word that have positive connotations, and that’s not what I mean, because this isn’t a sacred thing.
When I say that tech news and opinion got religious, what I mean is that it formed teams.
Indeed, this very much feels like a big part of ‘the state of things in 2018’. There are hot takes, there are hot takes for the hot takes, and there are hot takes on the hot takes on the hot takes. The overarching problem with this reality isn’t even the incessant nature of it, but the fact that everyone has already written off the other person’s narrative.
Jon continues:
It’s obvious why that sucks, but the thing that this takes away from is talking about what this stuff does, and what it helps us with.
This, to me, is a big part of why Internet Friends exists. Whenever I see someone talking about, say, the Apple Watch, they aren’t really talking about the Apple Watch. They’re talking about how the device is holding up to their biases, their arguments, their idea of what technology should be. When someone reads that piece which is (supposedly!) on the Apple Watch, they aren’t really reading the opinions, but instead measuring them up against their own and passing judgement.
Here’s a crazy idea: What if, like, we just had normal and open conversations about these technologies? What if we decided to look at the Echos and the HomePods and the Apple Watches and the Galaxys and actually see how their impacting people? What if we decided to look at the social network platforms of today not from the stock market’s perspective, but from an entirely human one?
I think we absolutely need to, because this is all becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives with every passing day.
This is the conceit of Internet Friends, and it’s honestly so refreshing. If these conversations sound compelling to you, then give it a listen.
