techlash

English

Alternative forms

• tech-lash

Etymology

2013, blend of tech +‎ backlash, coined by Adrian Wooldridge; popularized 2018.^[1]

Noun

techlash (plural techlashes)

1. (neologism) Backlash against technology.
   • 2013, Adrian Wooldridge, “The coming tech-lash”, in The Economist‎:

     The coming tech-lash [title]

   • 2018 January 20, Eve Smith, “The techlash against Amazon, Facebook and Google—and what they can do”, in The Economist‎:

     The techlash against Amazon, Facebook and Google—and what they can do [title]

   • 2018, Tom Baldwin, Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 290:

     Vestager was once criticised by Barack Obama who suggested her actions were the result of Europe's tech-envy because they ‘can't compete’ with Silicon Valley. But, as the ‘tech-lash’ continued in the wake of election shocks and Facebook scandals, she has been more often cited as a role model for much bigger interventions.

   • 2019 August 8, William Davies, “The Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour review – escape from dystopia”, in The Guardian‎:

     What’s offered is less class analysis than psychoanalysis. It is the psychoanalytic inflections that elevate this book above so much recent “techlash” literature.

   • 2020, Wendy Liu, Abolish Silicon Valley:

     It was July 2017, and the techlash was burgeoning; ordinary people were worried about AI coming for their jobs and unscrupulous tech companies misusing their data.

See also

• postdigital

References

1. Rana Foroohar (2018 December 16) “Year in a Word: Techlash”, in Financial Times‎

Anagrams

• clasheth, hatchels