The Fate of Online Trust in the Next Decade
Many experts say lack of trust won’t hinder increased public reliance on the internet. Some expect trust to grow as tech and regulatory changes arise; others think it will worsen or maybe change entirely.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Many experts say lack of trust won’t hinder increased public reliance on the internet. Some expect trust to grow as tech and regulatory changes arise; others think it will worsen or maybe change entirely.
Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse.
Despite broad concerns about cyberattacks, outages and privacy violations, most experts believe the Internet of Things will continue to expand successfully the next few years.
As robots, automation and artificial intelligence perform more tasks and there is massive disruption of jobs, experts say a wider array of education and skills-building programs will be created to meet new demands.
Algorithms can save lives, make things easier and conquer chaos. But experts worry about governmental and corporate control of the data, and how algorithms can produce biased results and worsen digital divides.
For many Americans, cellphones are always present and rarely turned off. This creates new social challenges, as people believe that different public and social settings warrant different sensitivities for civil behavior.
Online American workers say the internet and email are very important tools for doing their jobs, rating them higher in importance than landline phones, mobile phones, and social networking sites. Just 7% say the internet makes them less productive at work.
Frequent use of social media is not directly related to higher stress. But stress can be contagious through social media channels: Social media users are often more aware of the stressful events in others’ lives, and this awareness itself can lead to higher stress.
Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms did not provide new outlets for the discussion of the Snowden-NSA revelations. People who thought their social media friends disagreed with them were less likely to discuss the issues in person and online.
Many Americans want control over their personal information and freedom from observation during the activities of their daily lives, but they are not confident that the government agencies or businesses that collect data about them can keep that information private and secure.
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