Tech companies are all kissing the hand because that's what's en vogue right now.
It's been a rough time to be a fan of anything, especially a mobile operating system. I've carried the freak flag for Android for a long, long time—since I started using smartphones in 2010. I've always teased my iPhone-using friends with factoids about all the things Android does better than iOS, whether it be hardware or software-based. I'm used to making this argument in public and settling it with a mic drop. It's a schtick I have down to a T.
But lately, I'm not as loud and proud of my green bubble existence as I used to be. And part of the reason is because of everything that Google, the company, has put me through over the last ten years. After removing the "Don't Be Evil" slogan from its manifesto, it seems like every follow-up headline has only told tales of significant regression.
Here's just a small sample of all the ways Google, a multi-billion-dollar corporation recently ruled a monopoly by the Department of Justice, has let me down with its policies in recent years:
What I'm trying to say here is that there is no ethical consumption in this era. If you're considering leaving Apple's ecosystem because its CEO offered gold-plated Corning Gorilla Glass at the altar of how-are-we-normalizing-any-of-this, then you'd better drop everything else you're using in your periphery. Everything is bad. It's been bad for some time. It just feels worse now because it's the norm.
Instead of debating which platforms, apps, and services are the most holy in Our Trying Times, we should be discussing how we got to the timeline where wealthy oligarchs run the world and have the power to affect policy in such a manner. Tim Cook had to do what Steve Jobs knighted him to do all that time ago: keep the brand alive and out of the crosshairs of governing bodies by any means necessary. This is what you do to keep your business a top-tier consideration in the hearts and minds of the people, no matter how misled they are. Apple may have upset its diehard fans with this medieval times-era PR move, but for many, it's outweighed by the good graces it's fostering at the top and among those who revere the farce we're all collectively experiencing.
The next time you hear someone debating being a green bubble versus a blue, remember that it's all a convenient distraction from what's happening. We're arguing over the color of our respective digital cages while the architects of those cages work behind the scenes to shape global policy and avoid conflict with a moody oligarch. Let's stop defending the billion dollar companies and ask ourselves instead: how did we let it get this far, and what are we going to do about it?
We're in the pre-Pixel week! Catch up on episode 107 this week with Huyen, Mishaal, and Ron as your three hosts discuss why YouTube is kicking Google TV out of the limelight. Also, we bid farewhell to Amazon's Android-based App Store. It was truly an era.
