CONNECTION LOST

Technology's complexity keeps growing and those showing us the way, such as Elon Musk, are now our leaders but what happens when innovation slows down, asks Andrew Griffin

- Andrew Griffin

The 2000s will probably go down as the year that the technology industry built its foundations. After having made it through the millennium bug, and with key technologies such as Google just a couple of years old, the first decade of the century saw the number of internet connections and their speed expand drastically, and the size and price of devices shrink, leading to the proliferation of hardware such as the iPod and the laptop.

By the end of that first decade, we had a version of the internet of today: a world of powerful, prevalent computers, streaming media, online shopping and the first inklings of social networks.

The 2010s was the year that the real world truly embraced that new online world. Social networks expanded so dramatically that they became almost the entire media: everything from the music industry to news to your friends became wrapped up in a swirl of posts and feeds. The internet left the computers and phones that it had grown up and spread everywhere and into the real world: our home appliances, our cars, our relationships.

And so, by the time the third decade of this century began, the internet underpinned just about everything. Distances were shortened, and connections were instant – though there was a growing sense that both of those facts left us feeling more detached and alone than ever. Still, by the time 2020 began and the pandemic hit, the world was ready to migrate largely online, with much of what we see mediated by some sort of computer.