By definition, Software gets between you and what you want.

Originally, software was a tool to accomplish a task. However, once the internet was commercialized, software became a way to funnel users into creating and giving up information.

The invention of the “smartphone”, basically the iPhone, and the rise in popularity of Facebook are the key inflection points when hardware (phones) and software (apps) shifted the focus from utility to psychology.

Google, Apple, and Facebook all realized this and began to actively shape their products using psychological manipulation techniques. [“The Age of Surveillance Capitalism“, Zuboff]

So what is Software, then?

Software has made a conceptual migration from a tool with which to get things done to a way to emotionally manipulate people into spending money.