https://www.geekwire.com/2021/book-excerpt-trust-not-data-become-important-asset-modern-economy/
Trust. I trust that when I sit down in my chair, it will hold me up. I trust that when I turn my oven on, it will bake my cake to a perfectly golden brown hue. And I trust that when I get angry and lash out at my husband, he will forgive me…eventually.
Trust is such a fundamental part of our everyday lives, we don’t even give it a second thought, until it’s broken. I used to trust the news and media sources to give me updated and accurate information. I used to trust that my personal information that I input to purchase something online would be kept private and safe. But as we know all too well, that isn’t the case anymore.
A marketing executive at Microsoft, Stein Broeder, discusses that very idea in his book, The Business of Trust – How Experiences Build Trust and Drive Business Impact. Broeder explains how technology has become one of the primary culprits of trust breaking. “Nurturing trust is a constant endeavor, yet one that can be derailed in the fraction of a second. This is especially true in the digital age, where social platforms act as catalysts for spreading information, and search engines are permanent collective memory.”
The Economist describes the strong negative reaction or backlash against tech companies, their employees, or their products as “Techlash.” Let’s be honest. In the past year or so, who HASN”T felt the effects of “techlash” in one way or another? For myself, I can truthfully say that my trust in technology has been fractured. Yet, we aren’t putting down our phones or stepping away from our computers. Maybe we’ve become more cautious. At the very least, we’ve become more aware. And if a change is going to take place, that’s a good place to start.
