Technology's Grip on Modern Life

Technology dependence, digital vulnerabilities, Big Tech control, cybersecurity risks, AI automation

 Still, the generation that grew up with such efficiencies is now left to find a middle ground, as it were, amidst the path that weaves through a world still threateningly full of digital danger. 

 
If Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” jingle popularized two decades ago by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was an innovational appeal, its commitments are awaiting. Though that seems to be a nostalgic cry for a society already standing on a brittle digital foundation that cannot withstand flawed software meant to protect computers, not destroy them. 

The global technology meltdown, which started last week after an update installed earlier this month on computers with Microsoft’s common Windows software by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, was so extreme that some companies, including Delta Air Lines, were still recovering from it on Wednesday. 

This moment is a clear indication of the digital dangers inherent in a society that loves the wonder of technology and its possibilities until it turns into a monster, showing society’s folly and vulnerability. 

One example Silicon Valley forecaster and historian said was, ‘We are entirely reliant on systems that we are not even aware of until they fail,’ said Paul Saffo. The organizing has made us somewhat like Blanche DuBois in that scene in the movie ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ where she asks for help from strangers in this particular scene: ‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. ’ 

Dependence and this extent of vulnerability start right from the connections binding our computers, phones, and other appliances. While this is often helpful and brings more comfort into life, it also makes that outages affect a larger area or are more far-reaching, be it due to an error such as the one of CrowdStrike or due to a hacker attack. 

But it can function as the beginning of a new process of reflection on how the internet works and why it works that way. There are many hacks that have been implemented and that keep the whole ecosystem together, said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor from the school of engineering at Cornell University. 

The risks are magnified by the tightening grip of a corporate coalition commonly known as "Big Tech": Microsoft, whose operating systems control most of the world’s computers; Apple and Google, whose operating systems bring most of the world’s smartphones to life; Amazon, which operates data centers that enable websites (another important service that the two tech giants, Microsoft and Google, and Amazon itself provide besides e-commerce); and Meta Platforms, the social media company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

 This is a highly focused empire with very few avenues available for smaller firms like CrowdStrike—a firm that does $3 billion in business each year—a bit less than a quarter that of Microsoft’s $249 billion a year. All the major actors are still and remain fixated on profit over quality, said Isak Nti Asar, co-director of the Indiana University cybersecurity and global policy program. 

Firstly, Nti Asar said, ‘We have created a cult of innovation, a system that proclaims, Put technology in people’s hands as fast as possible and then correct it once you discover an issue.’ ‘We should be going slower and insisting on better technology, not leaping into the arms of these lords of tech.’ 

The following questions will guide the analysis of the research problem: 
Big Tech companies might be to some extent to blame for this situation. Or has our 21st-century society, in a way, made it possible for us to get to this point—the consumers availing the latest gadgets and closely posting photos online, and the passed-over lawmakers who look like they barely manage to safeguard anything?

 
The latest form of self-fulfillment seems to be to find someone to hate,” Saffo quipped. “Try looking in the mirror. 

If the development over the course of such a relatively short time as is presented here seems to be leading us wrong, should we not alter the course? Or is that even possible in a time where some credit card companies even have a charge for customers who prefer to be posted through U.S. Postal Service, now called “snail mail,” for how slow it is? 

Staying in a different era helped Southwest Airlines in the CrowdStrike situation since its system uses Windows from the 1990s. Oh my God, this technology is so old that Southwest does not even use CrowdStrike for security anymore. However, this has a downside: Functioning like a Luddite crippled Southwest during the 2022 holiday travel season when tens of thousands of flights were scrubbed because Southwest’s computer program failed to produce an optimal schedule adjustment for its workforce. 

Moreover, it is gradually getting hard to return to the paper and the pre-digital period of about 30 or 40 years back when considerably less was automated and documentation was all on paper. If anything, technology seems set to pervade even deeper with artificial intelligence set to take over more tasks and write codes for software updates, which will then be inspected by a computer, which in turn will be monitored by another computer to ensure it is not faulty.