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The change of tone in Tech Crunch over the last 5 years was something that I feel personally sad about. I was a long-time reader, and being in a peripheral pla

by braza 2y ago

The change of tone in Tech Crunch over the last 5 years was something that I feel personally sad about. I was a long-time reader, and being in a peripheral place where we looked up to the American companies, TC sounded very optimistic with their coverage, bringing success stories, talking with founders, and most importantly, being on this industry radar, at least from the standpoint of a more journalistic and general audience level. During the latest years, TC became a bit bitter around the industry and forgot the sea of small companies and scale-ups, and started to be more political and critical, and the least being a good thing in a certain way, probably does not have the ideological muscle to do it like the more mainstream media. In other words, if I want to check some critique, I would go to some independent and ideological shop and get the straight point, then some sugar-coated criticism.

janice1999 2y ago
> During the latest years, TC became a bit bitter around the industry If that's true, it accurately reflects what I see as societies changing attitudes to the industry, driven the enshiffication of tech, privacy scandals, degrading of work conditions and political actions by certain tech leaders.
- braza 2y ago
  Maybe I come from a different perspective. In my case, the technology industry was a gigantic enabler for societal mobility, social ascention, education, and a way to connect to my community, where technology is important for their economic ascent as well. Of course I am not trying to rationalize their side that is harmful for several societies, but at least for me, TC used to be the place where I could find companies doing something useful for a couple of people. PersonallyI would pay a service like TC circa 2014-2017 that is a directory of start-ups/scale-ups and bring some great digest about the industry in a more nuanced view in terms of capabilities and new companies.
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  > driven the enshiffication of tech This phrase is a good example of it, as though every bad business decision were somehow part of an inevitable war. Some companies make good decisions; some make bad ones; and it changes over time. But now we have to have someone in every comment section mention this "inevitability", which just has a chilling effect on perception of the industry.
  - HelloMcFly 2y ago
    > which just has a chilling effect on perception of the industry I see what you're saying, but your message implies that this perception of the industry isn't understandable/fair on a personal level and/or that it doesn't reflect the trajectory the industry has taken. Do you feel the perception among consumers is not earned, or that it is not "fair" for people to feel this way as the tools and places people use to use change, switch to subscriptions, harvest ever more data, fight against ad blocking technology, etc.? This isn't the fault of the tech journalists in my opinion, their bitterness and the tech industry's perception is a symptom of a shared root cause in my opinion.
mc32 2y ago
I feel that if “you’re the marketing arm” of a company you should not also try to be the oversight agency as well. That’s someone else’s job. Injecting politics might sound like it “complements” the product but I don’t think it does in this case and rather distracts from the “core mission”.
bko 2y ago
The "tech journalist who hates tech" is a recent phenomenon and present on most corporate tech publications. It's weird. You don't see it elsewhere. Imagine a car magazine that just rags on all cars or endlessly complains about carbon emissions. Here is just a sample of 5 articles written by a NYT tech journalist: - There’s Nothing to Like in Facebook’s Plans to Hook Our Kids - The Maps That Steer Us Wrong - Apple’s Illusion of Privacy Is Getting Harder to Sell - Why Tesla’s ‘Beta Testing’ Puts the Public at Risk - The Assault on Our Privacy Is Being Conducted in Private Pretty much every article is how some tech company or piece of tech is bad. That's fine if you believe that, but then why would you be interested in a tech publication? If you're not a fan of guns, why read a gun publication? It's just weird. It's part of a growing trend where there are decisions and a narrative pushed against the desires of consumers. No one wants this crap. It's expensive self sabotage and I never got an answer as to why. https://mleverything.substack.com/p/tech-journalists-that-hate-tech https://mleverything.substack.com/p/tech-journalists-that-ha...
- DharmaPolice 2y ago
  There are quite a lot of people who write/talk about video games or movies who are openly negative about much of what is produced. Although I agree there is probably a heavier slant towards negativity when discussing tech. I share some of the skepticism about AI but it's still potentially very exciting which you don't get from a lot of commentators.
- 3np 2y ago
  Could it be that we, as a society, have been played? Bitterness doesn't seem like an unnatural reaction to that. Stages of grief and all.
- braza 2y ago
  Maybe I wouldn't use the umbrella term "tech journalist who hates tech" because I can see where comes from the need for public scrutiny that every big industry faces when becoming influential (e.g., tobacco, food, alcoholic beverages, etc.), and I think we as a society need to acknowledge that technology enjoyed one of the biggest public good wills without any kind of critique (not criticism). I'm OK with the articles around privacy, political influence, power affluency, and surveillance, but when this becomes the main agenda for a publication that has as a target public starttups, VCs, and other parts of their ecosystem, it's hard to stick with that. In other words, I feel better seeing that kind of content in a more nuanced and in-depth way in The Atlantic, NYT or other independent media than in a publication that does not have that pedigree.

by braza 2y ago

janice1999 2y ago

> During the latest years, TC became a bit bitter around the industry If that's true, it accurately reflects what I see as societies changing attitudes to the industry, driven the enshiffication of tech, privacy scandals, degrading of work conditions and political actions by certain tech leaders.

braza 2y ago
Maybe I come from a different perspective. In my case, the technology industry was a gigantic enabler for societal mobility, social ascention, education, and a way to connect to my community, where technology is important for their economic ascent as well. Of course I am not trying to rationalize their side that is harmful for several societies, but at least for me, TC used to be the place where I could find companies doing something useful for a couple of people. PersonallyI would pay a service like TC circa 2014-2017 that is a directory of start-ups/scale-ups and bring some great digest about the industry in a more nuanced view in terms of capabilities and new companies.
robertlagrant 2y ago
> driven the enshiffication of tech This phrase is a good example of it, as though every bad business decision were somehow part of an inevitable war. Some companies make good decisions; some make bad ones; and it changes over time. But now we have to have someone in every comment section mention this "inevitability", which just has a chilling effect on perception of the industry.
- HelloMcFly 2y ago
  > which just has a chilling effect on perception of the industry I see what you're saying, but your message implies that this perception of the industry isn't understandable/fair on a personal level and/or that it doesn't reflect the trajectory the industry has taken. Do you feel the perception among consumers is not earned, or that it is not "fair" for people to feel this way as the tools and places people use to use change, switch to subscriptions, harvest ever more data, fight against ad blocking technology, etc.? This isn't the fault of the tech journalists in my opinion, their bitterness and the tech industry's perception is a symptom of a shared root cause in my opinion.

mc32 2y ago

I feel that if “you’re the marketing arm” of a company you should not also try to be the oversight agency as well. That’s someone else’s job. Injecting politics might sound like it “complements” the product but I don’t think it does in this case and rather distracts from the “core mission”.

bko 2y ago

The "tech journalist who hates tech" is a recent phenomenon and present on most corporate tech publications. It's weird. You don't see it elsewhere. Imagine a car magazine that just rags on all cars or endlessly complains about carbon emissions. Here is just a sample of 5 articles written by a NYT tech journalist: - There’s Nothing to Like in Facebook’s Plans to Hook Our Kids - The Maps That Steer Us Wrong - Apple’s Illusion of Privacy Is Getting Harder to Sell - Why Tesla’s ‘Beta Testing’ Puts the Public at Risk - The Assault on Our Privacy Is Being Conducted in Private Pretty much every article is how some tech company or piece of tech is bad. That's fine if you believe that, but then why would you be interested in a tech publication? If you're not a fan of guns, why read a gun publication? It's just weird. It's part of a growing trend where there are decisions and a narrative pushed against the desires of consumers. No one wants this crap. It's expensive self sabotage and I never got an answer as to why. https://mleverything.substack.com/p/tech-journalists-that-hate-tech https://mleverything.substack.com/p/tech-journalists-that-ha...

DharmaPolice 2y ago
There are quite a lot of people who write/talk about video games or movies who are openly negative about much of what is produced. Although I agree there is probably a heavier slant towards negativity when discussing tech. I share some of the skepticism about AI but it's still potentially very exciting which you don't get from a lot of commentators.
3np 2y ago
Could it be that we, as a society, have been played? Bitterness doesn't seem like an unnatural reaction to that. Stages of grief and all.
braza 2y ago
Maybe I wouldn't use the umbrella term "tech journalist who hates tech" because I can see where comes from the need for public scrutiny that every big industry faces when becoming influential (e.g., tobacco, food, alcoholic beverages, etc.), and I think we as a society need to acknowledge that technology enjoyed one of the biggest public good wills without any kind of critique (not criticism). I'm OK with the articles around privacy, political influence, power affluency, and surveillance, but when this becomes the main agenda for a publication that has as a target public starttups, VCs, and other parts of their ecosystem, it's hard to stick with that. In other words, I feel better seeing that kind of content in a more nuanced and in-depth way in The Atlantic, NYT or other independent media than in a publication that does not have that pedigree.