First the prediction and now the outcome

Sometimes it is interesting reconsider a prediction after it becomes possible to determine whether the prediction holds or not. Tim Wu was an earlier critic of what he considered the misguided direction of social media. If you read books focused on social media, you may have consumed his Attention Merchants and The Curse of Bigness.

In this podcast/interview from April, 2020, Tim was asked what could change the direction of big tech in increasing the focus on information that appeals to emotional reactions and increases disagreement and radicalization. Tim, from the historical perspective he sometimes takes, proposes that a major crises may offer the event that causes people and companies to re-examine and redirect their behavior. With the polarization around the election of 2020 and the storming of Congress, perhaps we finally have our crisis.

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