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.
