Who Is Really In Charge?

For those who choose to read my work, you may have noticed a trend as of late; I have dedicated many words to technological creep, the ubiquity of technology for tech’s sake, and the like. I have little reason to believe any of my words will do any good, but I am human, screaming into the noise, and perhaps that is good enough. Perhaps, it will have to be.

In the opening scene of American Gangster, one of my favorite films of the 2000s, Frank Lucas (soon to be kingpin and drug lord of Harlem), played by Denzel Washington, is merely a driver for the current reigning gangster, the elderly “Bumpy” Johnson, played by Clarence Williams III. Walking casually into an empty department store, “Bumpy” becomes upset at the current state of American consumerism and seems to collapse from a heart attack. As Frank Lucas frantically shouts for help, “Bumpy” Johnson reassures him that nobody will come; “there is nobody in charge”. In the film, he dies right there on the floor of the empty department store.

That scene was filmed in 2007 and was set in 1968. It is one of those scenes in a film that I catch myself revisiting, with those precious words “there is nobody in charge”.

Well, there may in fact be someone in charge, who is to say, but they are not there for you, the consumer, the downloader, the customer, the digital silhouette of a human. They are not there to provide answers or help solve problems. They have an app for that. They have an AI chatbot that cannot sort out very human problems when they arise out of a very human error. They have no regard for their own responsibility or humanity, only to profit, and the more automated the maze becomes, the further from responsibility they sit.

Our demand for connectivity, convenience, and technology comes at a great cost–it becomes impossible to follow the supply chain of information. One day, Facebook is all of a sudden Meta. Twitter is now X, Digit savings is now Opportun. I am sorry, you’ll have to send your info to a third party, just after downloading their app. It would be one thing if anyone actually demanded any of these things. But we haven’t–it has been shoved down our throats with a wink and a smile…

Just a few weeks ago, I realized I had a “dead” LinkedIn account. Seeing the numerous complaints about the site, I no longer wanted to be associated with it. I have moved on from whatever profile picture, resume status, or any other details about myself years ago. I wanted my face removed from the site, my account closed, and any association with it forfeited.

Trying to do this led me through a digital labyrinth, a technological black hole that is yet to be resolved. For one, simply visiting LinkedIn from a Google browser automatically creates a profile for you and steals your picture from your Gmail account. So now, instead of deleting my account, I now have two separate accounts. But it gets even stranger– to now close this new automatically created, unauthorized account, I will need to enter a password.

But as you can see, “we don’t have a password for you”, forcing me to open an account, simply in order to close one. There isn’t a hell hot enough for these people….

As for my original account, they cannot verify that it is actually me. I wonder how these companies seem to know everything about you when it is convenient for them, yet know nothing about you at all when it is you that needs something. I was led to a third party, where I needed to download an app, then give camera access, then needed to fulfill a facial recognition process, and then send a digital print of my goddamn passport photo. Who the hell do these people think they are?

Well, LinkedIn has received my request as of two weeks ago, and I have still not heard a word from them. Not to bore my reader with another anecdote, but I am having the exact same issue discontinuing my relationship with Amazon.com. The issue is startlingly similar at Amazon—there is nobody to talk to, nobody to help, nobody that cares–nobody in charge.

We put up with this at our own peril; where the world becomes a giant digital hedge maze of broken links, unanswered inquiries, thoughtless, automated messages, and reassurance that your call is important to us. We are sleepwalking ourselves not to be ruled by robots, but to be treated as robots. What they want is total governance of our entire lives. To wear us down with apps, surveys, fine print, techno-disgrace. It is a prison of a kind.

The techno overlords can only think of humans by the millions or billions—they have no use for the individual. We have become dazed and faded while dancing in their digital humiliation ritual. But who can you complain to? Who will hear you out? Who will take final responsibility? My only hope is for a mass awakening. A revolution, if I can put it that way. The window for that possibility is rapidly vanishing– in fact, it may already be closed. But if the digital revolution were to come, it won’t be forged on an app. It will happen the old-fashioned way.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.