2016 disillusioned Western users with internet utopianism

Evidence

Critics of Big Tech often repeated the motto “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” For years, most users accepted this trade-off. The internet offered instant access to global information, free navigation tools, endless entertainment, and seamless communication—at no monetary cost. Depending on your view, it was a deal with the devil or the greatest consumer proposition of all time. The political upheavals of 2016, however, changed the equation. The negative externalities of a digital world had shifted geopolitics. Internet usage continued to increase, but the period of unbridled enthusiasm was over. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 495