Why America is falling out of love with technology

Blame the industry’s treatment of data, the bizarre behaviour of cult CEOS and old valuations for this

Americans might as well embrace “disruptive innovation.”

But by now the “Social Network”/steve Jobs/ “disruptive” mythology is showing very real flaws: the industry’s treatment of user data epitomised by Facebook; how the industry gets its money; bizarre behaviour by a CEO like Tesla’s Elon Musk; and old valuations and business models turning south.

If tech’s role wanes, what will rise to take its place? I’ll offer up a couple possibilities.

First: the energy behind whatever Democratic electoral wave we get. This doesn’t mean Democrats will take over a divided country — which seems to lurch from left to right every six to eight years — but that they might set the terms of the national debate. Politics might be shaped more by Democrats like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-cortez rather than Republicans like Texas’ Ted Cruz.

Another possibility is rather than the national conversation being set by an industry or a political party, we could go back to seeing the world through an international rivalry, specifically with China. Perhaps the priorities of national politics, the tech industry and the broader economy will be secondary to asking “How does this impact Us-china dynamics?” For those of us too young to remember the Cold War with the Soviet Union, this would be unfamiliar territory.

Historians might someday argue that after the Second Age of Tech (2008-2018) came Cold War II or the New New Deal. The midterm elections could be one of the deciding points.