Big Tech, Big Problems
As a university student, I hear a lot about job prospects, internships, and what we consider to be the most employable fields of study; too often, those going into tech are lauded above the rest: jobs at Facebook and Google are unparalleled achievements, and each new employee is treated as a scaled down version of our altruistic nerd-gods — often in neat opposition to the near-constant demonisation of the financial world. We need to stop prioritising STEM and holding big tech companies in such high regard. Advancements in technology have certainly propelled our societies forward, but products like the iPhone have also originated some of the greatest societal degradation.
Slightly hyperbolic, yes — but oblige me. The iPhone was revolutionary when it arrived; kids today can hardly conceive of the limitations of computers 10 or 20 years ago. The iPhone is indescribably more powerful and complex than the Apollo 11 computer that flew Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to the moon. This fact is, in itself, amazing, and we aren’t even talking about the capabilities that come with it: I can navigate myself around foreign cities or plan a driving route across the country, access my email on-the-go, search the web without my computer — but at what cost? Apple spends millions of dollars and employs thousands to work on decidedly less useful ‘innovations,’ which — it wants to convince us — are useful; I have only used Siri a handful of times (never to good result), auto-correct does more harm than good, and only an infinitesimal number of apps are useful.
The iPhone has ultimately hurt society: we now have shorter attention spans than goldfish, constant connectivity increases workaholism and degrades the barrier between private and professional life, and need for instant gratification and peer-comparison through social media has had a dramatic effect on our collective mental health.
Wider societal harm is so insidious that most people would never know about it: Facebook and Google promote fake news, thereby destabilising the democratic process — Cambridge Analytica famously used data from tech companies to sway votes, such as creating an anti-vote movement among the black population in Trinidad and Tobago to win the election for the majority-Indian party. Facebook and Google listen to our conversations through phones. Even the environment is harmed from this culture: many elements used in smartphones are being depleted due to people disposing of phones every few years. A University of St Andrews chemistry professor says they are ‘endangered’ and will be gone in less than 100 years. The sector also consumes a gargantuan amount of energy, the IT and communications industry uses 2% of the world’s energy — as much as the airline industry. We regularly decry the evils of the airline industry — what about our phones?
On The Portal, Harvard Ph.D Eric Weinstein remarked to PayPal’s co-founder that there has been a conspicuous lack of progression in science in the last few decades — except for in screen technology. Barring computers and phones, the world looks much the same as it did decades ago. We have not gone back to the moon, we fly from New York to London considerably slower, our commutes are longer, and cancer still kills. So why the obsession with screen-related tech?
We need to look critically at these large tech companies — Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon. We need to stop persuading students that they are geniuses for developing apps that hold one’s attention long enough to sell them something they don’t need. If our ambition to change the world is defined by these paradigmatic big-tech success stories, it is valueless. We needn’t tell our children to learn programming so we can become the next Zuckerberg. If they are set on STEM, they need better aspirations: being the engineers to develop successful carbon capture storage technology, the rocket scientists to bring us to Mars, or the entrepreneurs to restore fish populations. The world does not need another Siri.