We are created for more. We know this. Tech Giants know this. Everybody knows this.
For most tech giants, their goal is to create a solution that speaks to a void in human psychology. The hope is that the product will fill that void in our lives, facilitate certain processes in our lives, help us cope with discomfort, and fix a problem in ourselves, and or others.
Sometimes, this goal is well-intentioned, and sometimes it isn’t. The ideas behind these solutions often have merit but can be overlooked if we, the consumers aren’t intentional with our time. We need to choose our time wisely, and not waste it on distractions or quick fixes. If we only have time for one thing, let’s make sure we’re intentional about it!
Tech giants cannot create outside of the collective biases that make up their team. And so even with some well-intentioned solutions, if care is not taken, loopholes are often created. For these solutions that they create to be scalable and self-sustaining, profit becomes a key driver in their vision board. There is nothing wrong with making legal and legit profits! I encourage people to make profits from their endeavors- that mouth isn’t going to feed itself.
The problem, however, is laced in the idea that this profit-making- now embedded in their vision and mission structure- focuses on how the money will keep coming instead of the pathways from which the money flows. Long before any tech giant can profit, they must find a way to identify the void in their customers’ hearts and minds and then fill it. The challenge therein is that the more they focus on what needs to be done, the less time is often spent on research (or accepting the research) into the consequences of how they are doing it. Is it or is it not ethical? Does that even matter?
For instance, I would consider defining vision in this way, it is where I want to see the world get to as a result of my input in it. Many tech giants, however, define theirs as where they want to see themselves get to as a result of their inputs. The difference therein is that mine considers the consequences of my actions on the world (and the people in it)- and so, I am careful to ensure that I am neither hurting nor manipulating the world to get to my destination, as I understand that we all need each other in this journey of making the world a better place- while theirs doesn’t mind hurting and or manipulating the world to get to their destination, as long as their profits come consistently (Which has become the end goal- even more than the gap the wanted to bridge).
The goal of writing this to you is to help you realize that these tech giants more often than not are achieving their intentions of solving your “needs” while making huge profits (the conversation on whether their methods are ethical or not doesn’t really matter to them at any point of no scrutiny).
We live in the attention economy and whatever has your time has you. Time is the greatest currency that will ever exist- and so, the more time from you they can get, the more cash it is that they are gaining. Your attention and your presence are what they want from you, and it is what we have been given them all along.
What happens when they have it? Their companies gain profit to keep growing, as simultaneously, our desire for staying online keeps growing which then means that we are always working for them and not ourselves.
If we are helping these giants achieve their intentions, What then are our intentions for being online? Asides from helping them achieve theirs…
We are already online, shouldn’t we get rewarded for it?
The reward that currently exists is the attention economy which we entered into unknowingly and are now paying for with our time. No one owns our time more than we do. Whenever they do, it’s called slavery!
We must become intentional and deliberate in how and to what we are given our time. One of my favorite persons to learn from is Nir Eyal and something that he said that has stayed with me is this, and I quote, “the only time that is not wasted time is the time that we plan to waste.”
If you are not intentional with why you are interacting within your digital environments, you would be wasting a lot of time being busy- thinking that you are productive. Everyone else is getting their defined rewards online. It’s time we begin to get ours too.