Without everything else Google makes — email, maps, calendar, translation software, photo storage
- 7 years ago
Without everything else Google makes — email, maps, calendar, translation software, photo storage
and the Android mobile operating system, which I’d need after ditching Apple — I’d be relegated to a life of some poor soul from long ago (say, 1992).
So, last week I came up with a fun game: If an evil, tech-phobic monarch forced you to abandon each of the Frightful Five, in which order would you do so,
and how much would your life deteriorate as a result?
When the whole process was over, I realized something incredible: To navigate all of the niggling details surrounding this one commercial transaction — figuring out what to buy, which accessories I needed, how
and where to install it, and whom to hire to do so — I had dealt with only a single ubiquitous corporation: Amazon.
What’s more, with its Echos, Fire TV devices, audiobooks, movies and TV shows, Amazon has become, for my family, more than a mere store.
As I began combing through other recent household decisions, I found
that in 2016, nearly 10 percent of my household’s commercial transactions flowed through the Seattle retailer, more by far than any other company my family dealt with.
I suspect that if you closely examine your own life, there’s a good chance some other technology company
occupies the same role for you as Amazon does for me: as warden of a very comfortable corporate prison.
Every year since, as my life got busier and accreted more responsibility (in other words, as I became more
and more of a stereotypical dad), Amazon took on an ever-greater role in my life.
(Apple reached $800 billion in market capitalization this week, the first of any public company to do so, and the others may not be far behind.)
and the Android mobile operating system, which I’d need after ditching Apple — I’d be relegated to a life of some poor soul from long ago (say, 1992).
So, last week I came up with a fun game: If an evil, tech-phobic monarch forced you to abandon each of the Frightful Five, in which order would you do so,
and how much would your life deteriorate as a result?
When the whole process was over, I realized something incredible: To navigate all of the niggling details surrounding this one commercial transaction — figuring out what to buy, which accessories I needed, how
and where to install it, and whom to hire to do so — I had dealt with only a single ubiquitous corporation: Amazon.
What’s more, with its Echos, Fire TV devices, audiobooks, movies and TV shows, Amazon has become, for my family, more than a mere store.
As I began combing through other recent household decisions, I found
that in 2016, nearly 10 percent of my household’s commercial transactions flowed through the Seattle retailer, more by far than any other company my family dealt with.
I suspect that if you closely examine your own life, there’s a good chance some other technology company
occupies the same role for you as Amazon does for me: as warden of a very comfortable corporate prison.
Every year since, as my life got busier and accreted more responsibility (in other words, as I became more
and more of a stereotypical dad), Amazon took on an ever-greater role in my life.
(Apple reached $800 billion in market capitalization this week, the first of any public company to do so, and the others may not be far behind.)