07/10/2026
Big tech ruins everything it touches.
Over the last 14 years we've seen our community and our industry experience a radical unraveling.
Big tech often proposes to make life easier, create more connection and social opportunities, increase sales etc.
And in almost all cases it turns out to be a bold lie.
Amazon has destroyed untold number or brick and mortar industries.
Food delivery services, while beneficial to a small subset of people, have damaged hospitality business and the consumer.
Social media increasingly amplifies the worst impulses of human nature; it does not build virtue or patience or kindness or real connection.
Instead of giving us more time and the freedom to slow down and enjoy life, it has created a nation of the overwhelmed, the exhausted and the creatively compromised.
Now everything just seems to be a copy or a dupe of everything else. One person is creative, everyone else jumps on board. It's bland, it's lifeless and numbs us to wonder and to beauty.
AI is rapidly crushing everyone across a number of areas that were once expressions of humanity.
It doesn't care about your beliefs, your religion, your politics etc. It seeks nothing less than total domination.
The toxic combination of AI and social media have eroded trust and goodwill that people used to naturally have for one another.
Who knows what is real?
Everyone expects to be scammed, everyone views institutions and one another with suspicion, disbelief and an inclination towards hostility. -Whether it's in the virtual realm or on the streets or in the marketplace.
What is the answer?
Real human connection. Getting out into nature and off our screens. instead of clicking that button to order something easily, make the effort to visit your neighborhood brick and mortar business. Serve others with kindness. Extend the benefit of the doubt.
Let's reclaim our humanity before it's too late.
📸 Dan Hawk
