Our online habits are changing, likely for good. This could make tech companies even more muscular.
The pandemic feeds tech companies’ power |
 | | Timo Lenzen |
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 | By Shira Ovide |
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We need technology to keep us supplied, connected and informed in this pandemic. And these changes may stick with us. Are we giving too much power to tech companies now — and possibly forever? |
I chatted about this on Twitter with Kara Swisher, a veteran technology journalist and a New York Times contributing Opinion writer. She was smart, and not boring. Here are portions of our conversation. It’s been lightly edited. |
Shira: How do you feel about us relying more than ever on services from tech companies? |
Kara: I’m nervous about it. It doesn’t abrogate the problems they had before. |
Facebook has been better than in the past; it’s not permitting false information about the coronavirus to spread. I’m glad they are doing this, but I’m not going to give them a standing ovation for it. |
Should we focus on this global health crisis, and drop government investigations into the dominance of big technology companies? |
You don’t have to throw everything overboard in a crisis. If threatened with regulation, tech companies will say, “We have to be big to fight this.” But they didn’t really fight this. Doctors fought this. Analog doctors. |
What should tech companies like Amazon do to protect their workers? |
Tech companies have lived off the back of other people’s cheap labor for a long time — whether it’s an Uber driver, a delivery person or Amazon warehouse workers. It’s just coming into sharp relief. |
These workers deserve much stronger pay and more benefits. That’s costly to the people who want to stay enormously wealthy, and to consumers who like a low price. |
But tech companies aren’t the only ones with vulnerable, often low-wage workers. |
Will this pandemic change how we live? Will we stop doing group activities or shopping in stores? |
I don’t think that people will no longer go to work or go outside. You will go to restaurants — certain restaurants. It’s just going to accelerate trends that have already been happening. |
It was hard enough already for mom-and-pop stores. I was going to go to the movies for “Top Gun” or “Mulan,” but I wasn’t going to theaters often. |
What is keeping you happy right now? |
I just had a baby with my girlfriend, and staring at a baby who has no idea that any of this is happening is really quite something. Watch a baby eat bananas for the first time. You will feel just fine. |
| A half-dozen of us in the Covid-vulnerable demographic usually meet on Tuesdays to “solve” the problems of our town one historic brick at a time. |
| The California-wide lockdown has interrupted that, and Joe’s Cafe has closed. After testing the limits of email as social discourse, we held a virtual lunch this week using GoToMeeting. It was great to see faces with voices again, and we’ll use it as long as required. |
| But it’s no permanent substitute for sitting shoulder to shoulder in a restaurant booth, being able to comment on the daily special or chat with the wait staff refilling iced teas. And we miss the food smells and background bustle. We’ve made offline payments to the restaurant owners for distribution to staff for missed tips and will continue as long as this quarantine lasts. |
We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you’d like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com. |
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