As the years progress, and the age of access to social media decreases, technology claims more of a chokehold on not only the market, but the people.
Technology monopolies grow arguably, because people allow them. Not by choice, but by addiction. The growing addiction to technology creates a higher demand, therefore tech companies rise to power. This monopoly then comes to exist as particular companies rise to power and popularity, gaining control over the market and therefore the people, creating an inescapable cycle of growth. This is the committee of Internal Market and consumer protection’s main issue to solve.
Addiction to these technologies develop from a place of funds in the first place. The more money a tech company has, the more traction it can gain, through adverts, unending and constantly placed strategically. This therefore brings more attention to them and allows them a greater income than smaller companies.
Furthermore, as the age of introduction to technology decreases, addiction increases as this tech is normalised, in fact, a life without technology is considered alien. Therefore, as younger people are introduced to this technology, they are more involved with it through their lives, developing an unfortunate addiction early in their adolescence. This further supports the development of tech monopolies as people are exposed to their products from a young age and therefore develop an early loyalty towards products and a distrust for smaller products that they are not accustomed to.
An example of the developing control of tech monopolies is the occupation of Twitter by Tesla creator Elon Musk. Though Twitter is undeniably not a small company, by buying the company, Musk presented a monopoly in his power over the media, as well as technology, from cars to phones and otherwise. This was similarly emphasised as Facebook began to take over social media – Instagram and WhatsApp now belonging to the Facebook empire. This is a threat to the people as it shows a select group of elites controlling that which everyone interacts with daily. This means that these elites can therefore channel their own opinions into their platforms, influencing not millions, but billions. This is also evident in the news medias, many controlled by a small group, newspapers like the sun, the times, the daily telegraph, the wall street journal, the new York Times and the Australian all being owned by one person: Rupert Murdoch. This results in his power and opinion spread throughout the Internet with millions exposed to biases created based on the owner. The fact this is possible shows that tech monopolies have full capability of controlling the population, leaving said population vulnerable.
Tech monopolies further influence the day-to-day lives of the people, from infinite scrolling, to grocery shopping. This infinite scrolling returns to the concept of addiction, social media sites resulting in the death of free time, people rather spending it on their tech, due to the monopoly of tech not only on the market but on the people. Furthermore, due to this tech, people no longer feel reason or energy to leave their homes, rather using monopolies like amazon or uber to order food to their homes. This could be considered positive for some as it gives easy access to necessary life resources, but also generates laziness in some.
Salma Nassar, EUobserver