Will 2018 be the year of the neo-luddite?

The downsides of technology's inexorable march are "now becoming clear - and automation will only increase the anxiety. We should expect the "growing interest in off-grid lifestyles to be accompanied by "direct action and even anti-tech riots

One of the great paradoxes of digital life - understood and exploited by the tech giants - is that we never do what we say. Poll after poll in the past few years has found that people are worried about online privacy and do not trust big tech firms with their data. But they carry on clicking and sharing and posting, preferring speed and convenience above all else. Last year was Silicon Valley's annus horribilis: a year of bots, Russian meddling, sexism, monopolistic practice and tax-minimising. But I think 2018 might be worse still: the year of the neo-luddite, when anti-tech words turn into deeds.

The caricature of machine-wrecking mobs doesn't capture our new approach to tech. A better phrase is what the writer Blake Snow has called "reformed luddism": a society that views tech with a sceptical eye, noting the benefits while recognising that it causes problems, too. And more importantly, thinks that something can be done about it.

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