These billion-dollar internet companies are nothing without the people harnessing new tools to do genuinely novel, fun, outrageous or informative things. Yes, these tools of human expression are also hijacked for horror and greed, but every day I see a brilliant moment of distilled human storytelling on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter or some other app. It might come from a 100-year-old news organisation or a kid in France, but either way I feel something: joy, outrage, or an understanding of a world I never knew.
I’m confident this will keep happening, whatever new ways of communication catch on in the future.
I’m grateful for fear: every business is terrified of being mowed over by technological change, and wow, is it good for you and me. Companies have to try harder than ever to keep people happy. Does anyone lament the days when cable companies could count on getting paid by 95% of US households, no matter how garbage their products were?
Customers of retail stores, car-rental services, airlines, banks and (yes) news organisations are better off with companies that are no longer insulated by monopoly economics and relatively hard to reach with complaints. There’s nothing like being scared of death to bring out the best in companies.
I’m grateful for the watchdogs and the whistle-blowers: the horribles of technology are real. That’s why we need academics and researchers who systematically study how misinformation spreads online or root out how our personal privacy is undermined. We need the people working in technology who take the risk of speaking up when they believe something is wrong.
We need journalists — self-serving alert — shedding light on the glorious and grim in technology. And even though they get a lot of justified heat, we need regulators and lawmakers to help protect people from the downsides of technology changes. All of us might get it wrong sometimes, but I’m grateful that there are watchful eyes keeping the powerful accountable.
After today, I’ll go back to being grumpy about everything. I promise.
• Ovide is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She was previously a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
Bloomberg
