The backlash against big tech is in danger of going too far

I’ve long believed the public has a good bullshit meter. It’s imprecise and sometimes temporarily misdirected, but people usually sense when something’s up. And they smell a problem with big tech.

Think back a few years. Remember how optimistic you were about the digital revolution and how total connectivity and limitless information would make us all wiser, freer, kinder and happier? Lots of extremely intelligent people swallowed this guff. Sure, there were sceptics who warned that the coming digital utopia wasn’t nailed on. But these miserable old farts were easy to ignore because they didn’t ‘get it’. So we galloped ahead, embracing every new gadget, phone, platform, website and app.  It obviously helped that Facebook, YouTube et al cost nothing to use and were incredibly useful – Google Maps alone has saved me hundreds of lost hours – but more importantly, they were cool. They screamed progress. And who’s against progress? Silicon Valley was the future, and its cheerleaders were young, nerdy, and wore hoodies to the office.