As a father and a local leader, I care deeply about the future we’re building for our kids, and that includes how technology shapes their lives and how it impacts the small businesses that power our growing economy in the Valley.
Big Tech has created opportunities, but as a handful of companies have grown to become nearly ubiquitous presences in our lives, we also must have an important conversation about accountability and how they impact regular families here in communities like ours.
Online platforms are designed to maximize the number of eyes on a screen and this can be especially harmful for kids’ developing brains. Too many parents now struggle to break their kids out of a hypnotic daze as they stare at their phones and miss out on the experiences and lessons to be learned by the real life world around them.
This isn’t an accident. This is a deliberate consequence of how the algorithms are set up, algorithms whose exact mechanisms are undisclosed. We’re not raising the next generation to be thinkers and doers if they’re walking around glued to a screen all day.
Kids turning into zombies who can’t put down their phones isn’t just about mesmerizing cat videos and the like. It’s also about the perspectives and viewpoints promoted online. When today’s parents were growing up, we were taught that Wikipedia is an unacceptable source to cite in our homework.
Today, Wikipedia is even the subject of Congressional investigation for its bias — and yet Google links to Wikipedia at the top of its search results as though the website is the gold standard of truth and accuracy.
This problem isn’t only about kids though. Small business owners are impacted when a handful of giant corporations control nearly every part of the digital marketplace. They pick winners and losers with opaque algorithms, and if something goes wrong, like a business page getting taken down or a listing disappearing, there’s no recourse, no way to reach a live person, and nobody who can take accountability.
Even worse, this handful of companies buys out competitors or replicates their products just to drive them out of business. That kind of behavior is monopolistic, but in California, unlike in many other jurisdictions, it’s legal.
Other states have already put measures in place to stop monopolistic behavior by giant corporations and ensure accountability and a level playing field for all. California should do the same.
Let’s give parents the tools to protect their kids. Let’s make sure Central Valley entrepreneurs have a fair shot. And let’s make sure Big Tech serves us, not the other way around.
