Technology and Sociology: Excitement Ahead
December 11, 2020
I read “Falling Out of Love with Apple, Part 3.” I also read “Tech Research Becomes Hazardous Ground.” As it turned out, I checked both these articles back to back. No plan, just part of the newsfeed output.
I am fascinated with the shift from technology writing in the late 1980s to today. In the late 1980s, I worked for Ziff Communications, a publisher of computer and software related magazines as well as operating a flotilla of other businesses. The content, as I recall, was product centric, how-tos, and opinion pieces about the speed of processors or the quirks of software. A big picture story about the cost or complexity of managing an enterprise system or network would add spice to the flood of innovations. Today, the focus of technology writing is more varied. One of the techniques in use by “real” journalists is what I call “turkey basting.” The idea is that the “bird” (in this case a technology hook) is daubed or immersed in socio-politico broth.
Crank up the heat and let that recipe loose.
The Apple story focuses on an interesting point. Here’s a passage I noted:
This is a massively slippery slope, and especially worries me as Apple operates in so many countries across the world. If oppressive governments are able to work with Apple to censor anti-government speech, Apple could end up playing a key role in suppressing democracy across the world. I believe Apple should simply refuse to cooperate with oppressive governments – but this is an unlikely scenario, as they have extremely close ties and dependence to China, a current perpetrator of genocide against the Uyghurs.
Here’s a passage from the Google Gebru article:
The bottom line: Cynthia Yeung, an industry veteran who spent five years at Google, put it bluntly: “Maybe the trade-off should be more clearly spelled out so researchers can make informed decisions before they accept a job offer: You get paid academic salaries in exchange for intellectual freedom, and you get paid Silicon Valley salaries in exchange for allowing your name/likeness to be used for brand/PR purposes and your research to be censored arbitrarily.”
What’s happened between the late 1980s and the quite remarkable 2020s is that technology has become more than how to connect a printer to a personal computer or ways to reduce the cost of adding a new user to the corporate network.
More than half a century after the digital shift began, individuals are looking at the world and finding it is a datasphere. Better late than never or a convenient way to criticize what social structures exist. A hippie movement on bits and bytes?
Stephen E Arnold, December 11, 2020
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