I think negative articles like this can hurt or help things. People know that twenty years ago, articles about how the scary internet is abducting your children got people to think more about it, then adoption kicked in. Even news about the NSA didn't get average users to change browsing habits, despite access to VPNs and tor. All the scary articles about the bitcoin bubble have undoubtedly gotten more people to buy bitcoin.

I think tech companies would prefer to be seen as dystopian over idiotic. Negative tech stories that I've heard which have destroyed the companies -- juicero, for example, or google glass -- show their customers as idiots.