Technology Adoption

Some of Americans’ pandemic adaptations have relied on technology, including adults working from home and students learning online.

As artificial intelligence plays a growing role in the everyday lives of people around the world, views on AI’s impact on society are mixed.

About half of Facebook users say they are not comfortable when they see how the platform categorizes them, and 27% maintain the site’s classifications do not accurately represent them.

Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will.

Most in the region feel positively about the role the internet plays in their countries, but long-standing digital divides between internet haves and have-nots persist.

The use of digital technology has had a long stretch of rapid growth in the United States, but the share of Americans who go online, use social media or own key devices has remained stable the past two years.

While many technology experts and scholars have concerns about the social, political and economic fallout from the spread of digital activities, they also tend to report that their own experience of digital life has been positive.

This sortable table provides data for levels of internet use, smartphone ownership and social media usage from 2013 to 2017 by country.

YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone and 45% say they are online almost constantly.

At the same time, the contours of connectivity are shifting: One-in-five Americans (20%) are now ‘smartphone only’ internet users at home.