Big Tech says constant connection will foster empathy. It won’t
Meta’s release this month of its Quest 3 virtual reality headset — a device being advertised as the first consumer “mixed reality” headset that allows the wearer to seamlessly blend the physical and digital worlds — is just the latest attempt by the tech juggernaut to be the company of “human connection.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said as much at the company’s recent annual developer conference, reminding the audience, “We are focused on building the future of human connection.”
No doubt, technology can be an incredible tool for strengthening bonds between individuals, but the tools Zuckerberg and his ilk across the tech world are building will not achieve that and, if anything, will do the opposite.
As an anthropologist of technology, I track the various futures Silicon Valley tries to sell us. Recently I’ve noticed how brazenly Big Tech companies are competing with each other to offer devices and platforms that will be our “everything, everywhere, all at once” tech. When Elon Musk announced that he was hiring Linda Yaccarino as the CEO of X (formerly Twitter) in May, he tweeted that she was expected to “transform this platform into X, the everything app.” Yaccarino later followed up, describing the platform’s future as one of “unlimited interactivity … X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the release of its VR headset, the Vision Pro, at the company’s development conference this summer. What the iPhone is to the pocket, the Apple Watch is to the wrist and the Vision Pro is to the face. No need to ever remove the screen, as Apple’s first ad showed, because you can be at work on your virtual desktop and still see that your kid is passing a soccer ball to you across the hardwood kitchen floors. As the website reads, the Vision Pro will make it easier “to collaborate and connect wherever you are.”
Big Tech wants us to be constantly connected to their products, and they assure us that this in turn will strengthen our connection with other humans. It won’t.
We’ve long known the negative impacts of social media — that it fosters social unrest, intensifies political polarization and largely leads to disconnection. That’s why when VR reemerged in the mid-2010s, it was so appealing. Enthusiasts claimed it would be the technological solution to foster empathy in a world that had become divided — largely based on experimental findings from the early 2000s. But more recent follow-up studies have tempered these claims.
One of the reasons technological attempts at forging social connections often lead to the opposite goes back to Big Tech’s vision of platforms that connect us to everything and everyone, everywhere and all at once. As these companies and their profits grow, so too do their grand monopolistic visions for control over the market. In order to achieve that dominance, they need to scale connection (to “build the future of human connection” or “connect us in ways we’re just beginning to imagine”). How? By collapsing the needs and desires of users into a narrow, singular definition of connection.
In the case of virtual reality, there has always been something ironic about the claim that a technology that physically separates one from the world (through a bulky VR headset) can facilitate human connection. However, if specific user needs are taken into account, there might be a different model for how something like VR could forge a connection.
For example, the startup Embodied Labs creates VR experiences for a very specific user: professional caregivers who work with aging clients. This company’s model of connection is one in which virtual worlds are not the end goal, but rather a space in which affective learning can happen that then translates into a strengthened connection back in the physical world between care worker and client. In this context, VR augments the hard work of connecting with another human face-to-face instead of trying to replace it. The company focuses on who their users are and what kind of connection they are interested in and that, in turn, allows their users to meaningfully care for and connect with others.
Despite what the current tech leaders say, connection is not simply about being plugged into an ever-growing generic network. Connection is about understanding the specific needs of individuals and communities and offering support. Technology can offer remarkable solutions to real problems and, yes, even help strengthen human connections. But this is best achieved at a small scale, attentive to particular users and their needs.
Technology has a role to play in improving our lives and even helping us form and maintain connections with others. But the way forward is not the monolithic visions of connection offered by Big Tech. We need a future where creators of technologies are in community with those they are trying to help and where success is not measured by the quantity of connection but the quality of connection. I don’t yet know how we get there, but I do know that, for now, we should be wary of the vision of connection being offered by Silicon Valley.