Popular Culture Has Soured on Silicon Valley's Hotshots | New Republic

Popular Culture Has Soured on Silicon Valley's Hotshots | New Republic: It’s not just personalities that irk critics. Manjoo, who is at work on a book about Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, points out that it makes sense that tech hate, at least as measured through Internet comment sections, has begun to pick up as those companies have grown. These former startups are now just more stylish, casual corporations with shareholders to think of. (It’s the Man in the Grey Flannel Hoodie these days.) Tech companies are becoming an inescapable part of our lives. We interact with them in ways we can't avoid, Manjoo says. The resentment that was formerly directed at then-ubiquitous Microsoft has faded. Now, says Manjoo, “People are very suspicious about Amazon in particular because it's tied up with their physical world in a way Apple and Google aren’t.” For those already inclined to dislike that kind of corporatism, this year’s revelations that many of the biggest tech companies are sharing their private data with the government only magnifies their distrust.