DECEMBER 8 — I had thought decades ago that I would be working in tech. Instead I remain on the sidelines, watching as it evolves from afar and sometimes writing stories about it.
One of the biggest problems with the rise of tech is that it was brought about by some really terrible people.
Revelations of big tech names being good friends with the late and disgraced Jeffrey Epstein, how so many of them went to his parties or were often seen with him at social events — it leads you to question many things, including their judgement of character and their understanding of ethics.
Is it a coincidence that many are slowly resigning from the companies they built, one after the other? Perhaps. We shall see what else is revealed as the Ghislaine Maxwell case progresses.
Conspiracy theories aside, Facebook now pushing a grand new metaverse of a future as cryptocurrency continues to gain a foothold in finance and NFTs take over social media is for me a grand disappointment.
Tech was something that was supposed to make our lives better, to make living more equitable but instead it has continued to empower the rich to, well, get even richer.
One example is mobile journalism. I don’t think we can truly replace great photographers, not with poorly trained journalists with a phone, especially as I know from experience some of them don’t even have the common sense to take videos horizontally.
As phones got more powerful for less money, it should have heralded a new era for local journalism — with it being easy to just take short, “live” clips on local stories and leaving fancier video for bigger organisations or professional documentary makers.
Instead those phones are used to shoot videos showing Instagram-attractive influencers dancing on TikTok.
We can do amazing things with phones but how many people are doing that? Why try at all when you can get more hits and make more money either making ridiculous videos aping Squid Game or documenting the various cute things pets do?
That’s not even taking into account the real harm done by Facebook through disseminating hate speech and misinformation on its social networks or failing to provide a secure place on Instagram.
Instagram, when I was being inundated by hateful comments, gave me no recourse besides going private.
What does Facebook care if people use its platform to send death threats or harassment? When I sent Facebook complaints, the company’s customer service insisted that no violations of its terms and conditions happened.
Thus I conclude that Facebook thinks harassment is a perfectly fine use of its platform.
I no longer keep my Facebook journalist page active — it has just become a way for people to send me either creepy messages or verbal abuse and I am tired of The Patriots taking screenshots from it whenever they disagree with my columns.
While I am grateful that the internet basically gave me a career, I think it is time we reconsider its impact and take to task company founders for the harm they continue to perpetuate with their platforms.
I have (now former) friends who have fallen for anti-Rohingya propaganda on Facebook or who have become NFT evangelists on Twitter; instead of illumination it feels like tech is heralding a new Dark Age where we reject science and facts for what we can find on Google.
Tech is but a tool without people thus it is up to us, the people, to take control of our lives before the bots overwhelm us all.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
