I'm thinking about nostalgia in the sense discussed in this episode of Throughline, The Nostalgia Bone.
In cyberpunk we often get these very clear bad guys as well as positive aspects of technology as a potential salvation and a way out of this mess.
Even though it's dystopian, there's a chance to 'use the devil's tricks against him' imbued in the most old school cyberpunk stories.
In contemporary life, it seems less empowering now than it once was. It's more about money plus tech. Massive venture capital investments. I'd say smartphones, social media, and generative AI hype have exacerbated the ever-increasing inequality of haves vs have-nots in a way that was predicted 40-odd years ago, but that's more boring and insidious.
The tech industry and Silicon Valley's extractive and addictive product designs are described as highly toxic. At least in cyberpunk narratives there's something quaint almost in how, although much tech is dangerous, it's still more potentially empowering…