How to choose the technology winners in the game about you

The documentary The Social Dilemma is currently receiving attention in both social media and old media. The founders, financiers, systems engineers and other key figures behind the revolutionary success of social media over the past decade are questioning their own creation. Was the increased accessibility and networking worth it?

The answer is, of course, a resounding "YES". Of course, technology development is always good. It gives us a choice. It is technology that lifts humanity from nature's otherwise equally brutal and short-lived living conditions, to a long-lived existence filled with royal entertainment from Netflix and Spotify. Not to mention same-day deliveries from Amazon of, for example, the latest game consoles. Technology is like money, you can always give it up if you want. Technology, like money, provides an option in life. With the help of technology, you can e.g. choose whether to take the meeting via Skype or Zoom, or whether you should instead book one of Tesla's millions of robot taxis for the flight to be able to meet IRL (i.e., in real life) just half a day later and really get things done. It hopefully lands in that you take some physical meetings in the beginning to put the relationship, and then limit the molecular transports to a minimum. How can anyone want to go back to a time of billions of unnecessary business class flying hours? Not to mention what it did to the environment.

Privately, you can also choose whether a digital congratulations may be enough when your father or mother turns one, or if you should take the trouble to visit. After all, that was a few years ago. Or next year may be enough; we always have Facebook. This year, the First Covid year, you do not even have to take responsibility for your own decision. The socially responsible thing is not to travel. Nice. How many couples are not wondering right now how to actually celebrate Christmas, when you do not have to stress between all relatives on both sides plus bonus people and plastic pears. This year they get away with: Like. Like. Like. WOW emoji. "Merry Christmas". "Hmmm, this can be a good habit, I get a lot of time left over", one thinks. And it is always possible to meet at a real "late".

Social media and the technology that enables them have undeniably increased the potential of humanity. Not least the Covid pandemic, which soon completed its first year by many, has shown how quickly digital social tools could make 80 percent of the global fleet redundant. It bodes well for humanity that we can now perform the same value-creating work as before by moving information instead of matter. It makes the world both cleaner and more efficient without sacrificing the need for social interaction.

So, yes, it's worth it. We all get more choices, more opportunities at a lower cost and less environmental impact. The increased efficiency means that you can spend time on what really matters - to Like: a. And watching movies of course. Without carbon dioxide comb.

In the coming days and weeks, we will once again witness the triumph of the technology sector in all its glory when the companies' quarterly reports are published. But what exactly is it that makes tech into tech, and a certain type of company into obvious winners and others hopelessly lagging behind? Well, it's the combination of positive feedback effects, network effects and low unit costs. So it does not really matter much if the company is a technology company in the true sense - as Intel, which sells semiconductors is. It is excellent enough to sell the products efficiently with the help of technology, such as e.g. Netflix, Facebook, Google and Amazon do.

As an investor, fortunately you do not have to worry so much about the details, because if the company has grown rapidly so far, it is the best indicator for it to continue to do so. Obviously, the company then has a (not so) secret ingredient, which gives that extra boost that justifies higher valuation multiples. In social media and its enablers, the ingredient is you and your data. The more companies know about you, the easier it will be to sell things to you, and the more they sell to you, the more they will know.

You think you choose. It feels like you are choosing. You experience desire and joy in the present, but in society as a whole, misfortune, depression and emptiness grow ever stronger. But, technology is good, we can opt out of it if we want. Or can we really do that? On the other hand, it does not matter. You as an individual may opt out of social media, but society at large will not. What you can do, however, is to help finance the technology sector so that your pension is better than others - both Netflix and Disney+ perhaps. With VR implants and neural link to share the brain-to-brain experiences with the grandchildren. Be sure to support the winners only - filter on "most data" and "least morale". You probably already know which companies come up at the top.

@Mikael Syding