Tech Criticism and Its Discontents

Question 2: What is the nature of technology criticism today? How diverse are the ranges, styles, and forms of writing contributing to popular critical discourse about technology?

This section surveys the current landscape of mainstream technology criticism to uncover its modes and assumptions. I find three themes in the current technology criticism landscape. First, what is commonly counted as “technology criticism” is attributed to the writings of a handful of identified “critics.” Second, the word “criticism” in the context of technology tends to carry a negative and judgmental connotation rather than one of critique, contextualization, and interpretation. Third, much conventional criticism rests on assumptions about the notion of technological progress, and thus skews the genre negative and nihilist.