Its mostly just increased reporting. Tech companies overhired when when they were doing well during lockdowns and are laying people off now that the increased revenue didn’t hold indefinitely.

https://layoffs.fyi/ has been tracking layoffs in the tech sector since covid and the charts show how much more layoffs there were in 2023 (particularly January and February). It seems like the biggest change is that now every time there is a layoff it gets more news coverage.

If you have a browser that still supports javascript bookmarklets and are brave enough to trust code from a random stranger online I have a bookmarkelet that I got from a random stranger online years ago that cleans all of that junk from links on the entire page making them safe to click.

javascript:(function(){var%20k,x,t,i,j,p;%20for(k=0;x=document.links[k];k++){t=x.href.replace(/[%]3A/ig,':').replace(/[%]2f/ig,'/');i=t.lastIndexOf('http');if(i>0){%20t=t.substring(i);%20j=t.indexOf('&');%20if(j>0)t=t.substring(0,j);%20p=/https?\:\/\/[^\s]*[^.,;'">\s\)\]]/.exec(unescape(t));%20if(p)%20x.href=p[0];%20}%20else%20if%20(x.onmouseover&&x.onmouseout){x.onmouseover();%20if%20(window.status%20&&%20window.status.indexOf('://')!=-1)x.href=window.status;%20x.onmouseout();%20}%20x.onmouseover=null;%20x.onmouseout=null;%20}})();

When MKBHD broke the samsung galaxy fold phone he was reviewing and had to get a replacement from samsung to finish his review then didnt mention it in his review told me where his priorities lie. He values relationships with manufactures over providing information to consumers. Only after several reviewers posted about having broken the phone by removing a protective screen did he make a video about it where his fans praised him for for how honest he was. Here is the follow up video where he explains how he broke the phone and didn’t mention it in his review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqtyyGZvXM

He was in a video by JerryRigEverything about content creators and if they have ever damage their phones and I couldn’t help but think about the review phone he broke when he says that he hasn’t broken a phone in the last 5 years. He was probably talking about just personal phones but I thought it was funny especially when the video has the line “I wonder if any of my friends here on Youtube have ever broken a phone and just not told anyone about it.” in the intro https://youtu.be/3oGJP9FMWAU?t=316