After 20 years of what appeared to be unstoppable growth, America’s tech industry has spent the past year underperforming the rest of the economy. Product failures in new industries like virtual reality and cryptocurrency, layoffs across the board, lower stock prices, and the failure of Silicon Valley Bank create a teachable moment to talk about the tech industry’s culture and direction.
Beginning in the mid-’50s, the tech industry embarked on a 50-year run of invention, entrepreneurship, empowerment and transformation. It delivered new industries and massive productivity gains to the rest of the economy. Americans grew accustomed to new technology, embracing each new generation, confident that it would make their lives better.
To an increasing degree over the past dozen years, the tech industry exploited the trust of consumers and policymakers to change the game. Rather than empowering users, many new technologies have exploited human weakness. They have used data and application design to manipulate the choices and sometimes the behavior of users, undermining their autonomy. Rather than creating new industries, tech has exploited data, low-cost capital and lack of regulation to extract value from consumers and existing industries. Tech has become a zero-sum industry.
