I think he’s point was more about the walled gardens and monoculture. Everything was independent and variety was rife.
In fairness, this change hasn’t just happened with IT either. Cars have gotten harder to self-repair. Hardware has increasingly become disposable. Even the life of things like TVs have gotten shorter as they’ve become “smarter”. In general, consumers have gotten lazier and more motivated by pretty things rather than longevity. A trend businesses are very keen to encourage because it makes them more money.
It’s not all bad though. For example social networks and smart TVs have become a weird godsend during the lockdown. Would we have coped without them if we didn’t have them? Probably. But I’m still glad we had them.
In fairness, this change hasn’t just happened with IT either. Cars have gotten harder to self-repair. Hardware has increasingly become disposable. Even the life of things like TVs have gotten shorter as they’ve become “smarter”. In general, consumers have gotten lazier and more motivated by pretty things rather than longevity. A trend businesses are very keen to encourage because it makes them more money.
It’s not all bad though. For example social networks and smart TVs have become a weird godsend during the lockdown. Would we have coped without them if we didn’t have them? Probably. But I’m still glad we had them.