Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The expert predictions reported here about the impact of the internet over the next 10 years came in response to a question asked by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center in an online canvassing conducted between July 2 and Aug. 7, 2017. This is the eighth “Future of the Internet” study […]
More than half of comments submitted to the FCC on net neutrality used temporary or duplicate email addresses, and seven popular comments accounted for 38% of all submissions.
Most respondents who expect an improvement in the information environment in the coming years put their faith in maturing – and more discerning – information consumers finding ways to cope personally and band together to effect change. Fake news and information manipulation are no longer ‘other people’s problems.’ This new awareness of the importance of […]
One current public debate centers on whether it is enough to expect people to simply evolve to avoid unhealthy tech habits or whether the only effective solution is for the tech business to evolve different approaches. Nir Eyal advocates in his new book “Indistractible” that people can apply the concepts behind tech addiction – motivation, […]
Experts are split on whether the coming years will see less misinformation online. Those who foresee improvement hope for technological and societal solutions. Others say bad actors using technology can exploit human vulnerabilities.
Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse.
More monitoring equals more regulation and management in the eyes of some of these experts. Their answers struck these notes: Some solutions could further change the nature of the internet because surveillance will rise; the state may regulate discourse; and these changes will polarize people and limit access to information and free speech. The fairness […]
Many respondents said that as people put too much faith in data, humanity can be lost. Some argued that because technology corporations and, sometimes, governments are most often the agencies behind the code, algorithms are written to optimize efficiency and profitability without much thought about the possible societal impacts of the data modeling and analysis. […]
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.
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