[Dem_Boys]

Isn't this a damning condemnation for the tech world? Can anyone think of another product that was so popular and then people started abandoning it for their own mental health? This sounds like drugs!

We created the most influential hardware device in the past 30 years (smartphone) and within 5 years it was used to weaponize human vulnerabilities (high jacking dopamine, porn, propaganda, etc...) and has had a huge negative impact on our young people so much so that social media* is now being compared to smoking. I think the takeaway is "Don't trust anything this industry makes because eventually they'll use it to extract profits and harm you in some sneaky way". Kinda like how most people rolled their eyes when tobacco companies push vapes as "safer".

Most of my non tech friends are starting to look at the tech industry like the oil industry. Greedy, hurting society for profits, and delusional. This is sad because most people I work with are amazing and great people who build fantastic products.

* I think social media would be a fraction of what it is today without the smartphone

[disqard]

This is a growing chorus indeed, and I see no reason to believe that it'll die down.

Big Tech does indeed resemble Big Oil, plus "I'm in this picture and I don't like it" (for many folks on this site).