[crazygringo]

Obviously tech itself isn't collapsing -- it's the astronomical growth that's collapsing, and much of valuation is based on growth. Now it's turning into merely "normal" growth. But that's all investor-side.

Consumer-side, it's really more about tech maturing. If we take your example of owning a smartphone, it means that most people already have smartphones, and since the yearly upgrades are much more incremental now, people don't need to upgrade as often.

[kalimanzaro]

If by tech we mean everything touched by Moore's law, all this degrowth seems also to be a consequence of the lengthening of the doubling time in flops and words. Ultimately what you mean by normal growth would then be the replacement rate of your old computer by a new but not more powerful computer.