A little bit of Tech Doomerism
It was in the late 2000s and throughout most of the 2010s when I felt the most optimistic about the future of technology. Being that I was a child at the time this obviously doesn’t come as a shock, but even early on tech was not all it was cracked up to be. I had yet to learn about the failures occurring at the time such as The Dotcom Bubble, The Microsoft Antitrust Lawsuit, or the Privatization of the Internet; all of which would taint my nostalgia of this era later on in my life. Nonetheless, lacking this knowledge at the time combined with my tech sensibilities made me feel extremely hopeful. I think this is understandable considering all of the major technological changes occurring at the time such as; the wide adoption of the smart phones changing the way we live our daily lives, gaming consoles starting to take advantage of new power and online connectivity, companies such as NVIDIA and AMD creating some of the most impressive graphic cards to have ever been seen, social media starting to grow connecting people like never before, websites like YouTube starting to pay its creators kickstarting many careers and allowing for creatives to share their independent works, the use of gaming for scientific applications, and so on and so forth. Now, I’ll get to the downsides of all of what was just mentioned later, but for now let me get more personal first.
During this era I was a very cynical adolescent who felt like the world was full of issues (I mean duh), but I felt like it could be mended with technology in one way or another. Now this is true, I don’t need a source to state that technology can most definitely help improve the lives of everyone. With that being said, as I have gotten older and experienced the 2020s I am most definitely in the mindset that technology has damaged us. Now for the obligatory list of consequences from technology before I continue my thoughts; social media creating a whole litany of mental health concerns, the spreading of misinformation which have had some very real world outcomes (example A and example B), the destruction of privacy, the growth of echo-chambers and dangerous ideologies, the destruction of certain industries, monopolization from huge tech companies, the need for more power exasperating climate change, the rise of scamming and hustle culture, and of course the possibility of AI taking away many many many many jobs.
Now that’s out of the way, lets talk more about my personal journey. As a child I was very interested in technology from an early age. From learning about how to install emulators, to watching YouTube religiously, to eventually building my first PC; I had always enjoyed immersing myself in technology. My anxiety and eventual pessimism started while I was still in that golden age. I started to notice, oh man these improvements to my phone are so minor why bother bother releasing a new phone, oh man why are these game companies charging so much for me to play this game, oh man there are a lot of rude people in the comments, oh man I don’t think I should be seeing images and videos of death and destruction so easily, etc. I had come to accept all of this though and didn’t put much stock in it at the time. I think over time as I became more aware of the current state of the world and watched news stories come flooding in that this initial optimism died out. Then comes the 2020s and; oh I can’t buy a graphics card because of a price hike, oh Twitter is being bought out and ruined, oh electric vehicles aren’t as reliable as promised, oh streaming services are just becoming cable again, oh AI is using my info to train itself, etc. Needless to say it has been an exhausting four years, and who knows what the future holds.
To take a step back now, I was made aware of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic in the last couple of years. I think part of its appeal to me has been feeling that nostalgia again, feeling that one sensation that the future looks promising. The bright colors, glossiness, relation to nature, and the post Y2K “futuristic feel” just make me feel good, simple as that. Now I am aware that it was supposed to make me feel a certain way and that is was designed by major corporations to evoke emotions, but what can I say it worked. With that being said I know the future is looking bleak and technology sometimes seem like it will be humanity’s downfall. I just hope one day that human behavior and morality can catch up with technology. Until then it is up in the air.
