🧩 BND Motif Index · M288
Blaming technology
Technology is to blame for what is wrong with society.
🕵️ Theories🗂️ Surveillance and privacy🗂️ AI related
- 8claims filed under it
- 2left shows it came up on
- 3center shows it came up on
- 1right show it came up on
- 1claim retold online
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
⤵️ under it: 🧩 Algorithmic bias distorts discourse
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Luddites 🧩 Misinformation spread 🧩 Polarization
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🐘 right 1
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-25 “Social media platforms use a broken business model that leaves people lonelier and more disconnected.”
🎙️ The Daily (NYT) - 2026-10-23 “Online platforms use rage bait and political heroin to addict subscribers to their screens.”
🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton - 2026-10-22 “Most Americans believe AI is bad for society and want more government regulation.”
🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ Breaking Points - 2026-10-22 “Social media amplifies political conflict and makes it seem like the country is coming apart.”
🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton - 2026-10-21 “Social media splits people apart because polarization is its business plan.”
🎙️ The David Frum Show - 2026-10-17 “Rapid technological changes like AI are causing widespread anxiety and instability.”
🎙️ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton - 2026-10-16 “Tech companies are exercising authoritarianism by controlling versions of reality.”
🎙️ The Brian Lehrer Show (WNYC) - 2026-10-05 “The internet has both positive and negative effects on democracy, with misinformation and algorithmic polarization threatening democratic discourse.” 🧶 people online
M288 · first seen 2026-10-05 · last 2026-10-25 · what this is · how the index works