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Lee Rainie Shares Findings on the Future of Well-Being in a Tech-Saturated World

Michelle Winowatan — May 04, 2018

In the context of rising concerns regarding the role of technology’s impacts on technology, Lee Rainie and Janna Anderson published a new report, “The Future of Well-Being in a Tech-Saturated World.”

Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center surveyed technology experts on the central question: “Over the next decade, how will changes in digital life impact people’s overall well-being physically and mentally?”

They found that 47% of the surveyed 1,150 experts predict that technology will be more helpful than harmful to human’s well-being, while 32% believe that technology will be more harmful then helpful, and 21% predict little to no effect to our well-being.

Common themes are visible across the responses, which Rainie and Anderson present across three central categories: areas more helped than harmed by technology, areas more harmed than helped, and potential remedies for current challenges.

More Helped than Harmed

  • Connection
  • Commerce, government and society
  • Crucial intelligence
  • Contentment
  • Continuation toward quality

More Harmed than Helped

  • Digital deficits
  • Digital addiction
  • Digital distrust/divisiveness
  • Digital duress
  • Digital dangers

Potential Remedies

  • Reimagine systems
  • Reinvent tech
  • Regulate
  • Redesign media literacy
  • Recalibrate expectations
  • Fated to fail: A share of respondents say all this may help somewhat, but – mostly due to human nature – it is unlikely that these responses will be effective enough.

Read more here.