I’ve been struggling with this shift too. Tech used to game changing ideas for people, now it’s sole purpose is a vehicle for corporate profits. Tech used to be an exciting Wild West of crazy new ideas and new ways to be creative or play or communicate and share with friends or do less work. Now consumer focused tech is just minor evolutions of current tech launched with billion dollar marketing campaigns, corporate traps to lock you into app addictions or various subscriptions to see stock price increase 0.1%. And I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah, I miss the late 00s, when every new tech release was actually fun and exciting. Now it's just "we increased a few specs and shoehorned in an ai feature that no one actually wants"