Does Tim Wu's As Technology Gets Better Will Society Get Worse?

As we advance ourselves as a race through technology, praise and incrimination come and go for these tools. On the condemning side of the debate is Tim Wu, as shown in his article, “As Technology Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse?”

Wu personifies technology as a malicious force when he quotes Kevin Kelly, “Technology wants what life wants: Increasing efficiency; Increasing opportunity…” and so on. He also accuses these modern tools of “murdering” the Oji-Cree tribe, who reside up south of the Hudson Bay. “Since the arrival of new technologies, the population has suffered a massive increase in morbid obesity, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes. Social problems are rampant: idleness, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide have reached some of the highest levels on earth… The Oji-Cree are literally being killed by technological advances,” (Tim Wu, “As Technology Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse?”) These two statements are a use of ethos and pathos;

The only link in the article that supposedly backs his reasoning scientifically does not work. The link that does is to his other article about how technology is bad. Looking into other articles about the Oji-Cree’s health issues, it can be noticed that at least four texts that popped up in the search results all quote Tim Wu. “At that point, everything changed for the Oji-Cree, and, as Wu put it, ‘they went through a rapid evolution, advancing through hundreds of years of technology in just a few decades,’”, “A future, Wu notes, that was neatly captured by the animated film WALL•E”, and two others all echo Tim Wu. There is, however, one medical report mentioning Type 2 diabetes in the Oji-Cree, but no other health problems, not even mental health. The author relies so heavily on emotional and a small amount of moral appeal that the logic in this text is