Let's Leave The Darkest Timeline

Remember how hopeful we all were about tech in 2008? "Hope" was the word on everyone's lips as candidate Barack Obama's one word tagline. But it was also a feeling in the air, as we moved forward from a recession and saw the promise of the Internet as it matured. The iPhone had just been released the year prior, and the ubiquitous connection it offered seemed like a great advancement.

Where did it all go wrong? I mean, insofar as tech is concerned. Social media didn't bring us all together, instead it divided us and separated us into our own information ecosystems. Google's "don't be evil" went away, Facebook became whatever the heck Facebook is now. Idealism melted away in Silicon Valley to become profit-chasing cynicism. And the future, despite the amazing innovations on the horizon, doesn't feel hopeful - I think most people are nervous about it.

Why? We don't trust the "leaders" and institutions taking us into the future. And that's based on their past performance. They've well earned our skepticism.

Right now, there's a conversation around the "enshitification" of the web. Yes, the web was turned to shit. Because it transformed from an agora of expression, curiosity and creativity - into an engagement machine, powered by an attention economy. Keep the eyeballs around for the ads, no matter the harm done.

I think the Mozilla Foundation does a great job of addressing this in their "What comes next in tech is a choice" video:

And that's my call out for today. We don't have to live in the darkest timeline when it comes to technology. We decide what the future of tech is by what apps and services we use and promote, but also in what causes we support.

Today, I'll ask that everyone who reads this takes a moment to think about what you want the future to look like for technology and to make changes in your habits and where you put your time and money to create the kind of tech that feels hopeful again.

One way you can do that is by supporting the awesome work the Mozilla Foundation does: like their Privacy Not Included guides that tell you how product are (mis)using your data. Or their new digital magazine Nothing Personal, which features things like the WhatsApp Privacy Review (a great read).