To be sure, there is a real and misguided tendency to romanticize the past. But for a long time I’ve been agitated by a nagging feeling that this time is different. Many aspects of social life and everyday experience really are worse. Beyond shaking my fist at the sky, I didn’t have a good way of articulating what was underlying this feeling. This is my attempt to do so.

The story begins with two common observations that, taken together, give rise to a paradox: First, we seem to be inundated with customer feedback surveys. No matter how trivial the interaction with a business or institution, we inevitably receive a request to fill out a customer feedback survey. The second observation is that, in many industries, customer service seems worse than ever.

How does this make sense? If we’re constantly filling out customer feedback surveys, we should be living in the golden age of customer service. What explains this paradox?

Read More No, Everything Really Is Worse: Technology and the Degredation of Public Life and Everyday Experience