July 15, 2026
From nerd love to public enemy
Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)
Tech’s popularity crash isn’t a mystery — people think the magic turned into a scam
TLDR: The article says people are turning on the tech industry because it stopped feeling helpful and started looking greedy, out of touch, and built on flimsy promises. In the comments, readers piled on with nostalgia, doom forecasts, and jokes that tech has replaced bankers as everyone’s favorite villain.
The big mood around this piece is basically: please stop acting confused. The article argues that people don’t dislike the tech world because of one flashy fraud case or one bad headline — they dislike it because too many companies spent years promising to “change the world” while ordinary people watched prices rise, jobs get shakier, and absurd business ideas get showered with cash. The crowd in the comments was not in a forgiving mood. One person summed it up with a bleak little mic-drop: every industry is hated now, and for suspiciously similar reasons, thanks to the same tiny class of powerful people. Ouch.
But the real drama came from the nostalgia. Commenters mourned the era when the internet felt creative and useful — think early social sites and music tools that helped people make things and connect. Now, they say, everything has been “enshittified”: worse products, more ads, more extraction, less joy. Another commenter joked that bankers used to be society’s favorite villains, but now tech has inherited the crown. And then came the full doomsday prophecy: we’re only halfway to peak anti-tech anger, and if the artificial intelligence boom collapses and hurts the economy, the backlash could get even uglier. The funniest recurring theme? People can’t believe founders are still going on stage and basically saying the quiet part out loud — that they want to cut jobs — instead of at least pretending this is all for the public good. In other words: the comments section thinks tech didn’t lose the plot overnight. It monetized it, polished it, and tried to call it progress.
Key Points
- •The article argues that public sentiment toward the tech industry has shifted negatively and that people inside startup circles are trying to explain the change.
- •The author frames the piece as a response to *Tech Entrepreneurship and Shifting Sentiment*, saying that article recognizes the change in sentiment but misreads its causes.
- •The article says tech insiders can be insulated from outside views, citing Upton Sinclair to argue that financial incentives can obscure understanding.
- •The author rejects startup-disaster media and Elizabeth Holmes coverage as the main reason for anti-tech attitudes, saying most non-tech audiences do not closely follow those stories.
- •The article argues that distrust has been building for more than a decade because many startup business models appear unsustainable or aimed at eliminating competitors through below-cost pricing.