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The 'All Tech Considered' Blog Logs Off

Marcio Jose Sanchez
/
AP

After nine years and 2,630 posts, the All Tech Considered blog is being retired.

NPR Managing Editor Sara Kehaulani Goo acknowledged the important role blogs have played in "finding and growing a digital audience for our stories." But, she added, "when it comes to news, 'blogging' no longer defines what we're doing." Our audience, she said, finds stories in many other ways.

From the outset, All Tech wasn't going to be a traditional geeky tech blog that reviewed the latest shiny gadgets. We were more interested in visiting the intersection of technology and society.

As Wright Bryan wrote in All Tech's first post on April 30, 2009:

"We think that what makes the tech world really interesting is how people interact with technology. Technology opens up new creative possibilities and makes old tasks easier. But it also makes life more complicated. That's where our focus will be: on the human side of the technology equation."

While we didn't always have the answers, this blog explored a lot of questions. Questions that you had or questions we had about how technology was changing our lives — for better or worse.

One of the themes we often explored was our addictive obsession (OK, "distraction" to put it nicely) with our screens, at the cost of social interaction. Can we just put our phones away — for the hour it takes to have dinner, for an afternoon, for a weekend?

As NPR's Elise Hu asked in 2014: "So what should be the norms around smartphone use? Is it completely situational — OK for some places or times, but not others? How does the ubiquity of smartphones affect interpersonal contact?" Readers offered some insightful answers.

While we didn't review tech products, we didn't entirely ignore gadgets. Our Weekly Innovation series did feature some memorable gizmos, like the sad desk microwave for your sad desk lunch, the emergency pizza button and the sink-urinal (don't ask).

Another recurring subject was Facebook — how we love it, hate it and love to hate it. Our privacy Facebook privacy worries are nothing new. This post "Yet Another Shift In Facebook Policies Raises Privacy Concerns" was published in 2012.

Don't worry, though. While the blog (or weblog, if you like) is logging off, these kinds of NPR stories aren't going away. And the All Tech segment will still be heard each Monday on All Things Considered. You'll still find those and other tech-related stories on our Technology page.

For now, we'll leave you with one of our favorite posts — "Never Trust Magic," by NPR information technology specialist Michael Czaplinski.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.