News flash for everyone: public trust in tech companies isn’t exactly thriving. While you don’t have to be an expert to sense the bad blood simmering between technology and its users, to research published this week by Edelman provides clear new information on how much the relationship has deteriorated over the years.
WE Trust in technology has fallen 24 points over the past decade according to the Edelman Report, with declines reported across just about every demographic group, regardless of age, gender, or income. Although confidence in the technology fell in 14 of the 22 markets Edelman studied, the United States stood out with the largest declines of all. Technology has always maintained a higher level of confidence than other sectors of the economy, but the trends overwhelmingly point in one direction, and it’s not up.
Confidence in technology was low among most groups of people, but was worst among older adults, self-identified Republicans, and low-income people. Only 51% of adults aged 55 and older said they trust technology, compared to 57% of people aged 18-34. High-income people were 10 percentage points more likely to express confidence in technology than low-income people. Republicans, likely fueled by demands for technological censorship and liberal biases amplified under the Trump administration, were 16% less confident in technology than Democrats.
Edelman’s Trust Barometer attributed the declines, in part, to the growing number of people grouping generally well-received hardware and software companies with social media companies notorious for low trust. Nearly 91% of respondents in this year’s report said they consider social media and digital apps to be part of the tech industry, which the report suggests ends up lowering confidence in the whole industry.
So to all the makers of rambling headphones and keyboards, sorry, blame Facebook and TikTok.
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Social media wasn’t the only bad vibe factor. Worries about data security, cybersecurity, growing misinformation, deep-seated counterfeits and alleged politicization of technology also play a part in deteriorating trust. All of this is potentially bad news for tech companies because, as the report notes, lower levels of trust tend to translate into lower levels of technology adoption. It could mean less money for tech companies.
American respondents were very suspicious of nine of the twelve technology sub-sectors studied in the report. Only 36% of US respondents, for example, expressed confidence in self-driving vehicles. An even smaller share (30%) said they trust cryptocurrencies. Curiously, health tech and 5G were the only two technology sub-sectors in which a majority of US respondents express confidence.
The Edelman report draws on a growing body of research over the past few years, highlighting the tech industry’s struggles to maintain its grip on public trust. Polls conducted last year by the Public Affairs Council and Morning Consult illustrate the steep downward spiral. After ranking number one in reliability among nine major industries between 2012 and 2017, technology suddenly fell to fourth place in 2018. The technology industry fell another two rungs by 2021. only three industries in which we have less confidence this report covered big pharma, healthcare and the energy industry.
A 2020 investigation American Adult Survey conducted by the Knight Foundation and Gallup, meanwhile, provides specific examples of why the public simply can’t stand the technology. At the time, 74% of American adults, including a majority of Republicans, (panting) expressed serious concern about the spread of misinformation on the Internet. Another 68% of adults said they were very concerned about their digital privacy, while 47% said they believed technology caused more problems than it solved. Perhaps most tellingly, 60% of those surveyed said they believed technology was doing more to divide society than to unite it.
It may seem hard to believe now after reading all these numbers, but not too long ago the overwhelming narrative surrounding Silicon Valley companies was one of a spurt optimism. Facebook and Twitter, now credited with fueling harmful political movements around the world through its amplification machine, were almost universally hailed in the early 2010s as a way to foster connectivity, bridge cultural divides and even to bring peace to the Middle East. Clearly times have changed.
Although sources may disagree on exact timelines, the so-called “techlashbegan to simmer in the United States after the 2020 presidential election with activists and lawmakers bringing renewed security to the social media platform potential impact on elections and election information. This technological cynicism snowballed in 2018 thanks to several high-profile privacy errors, including the notorious Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal and antitrust investigations digging into Big Tech’s monopoly power, some of which resulted in executives uncomfortably bear witness for hours before Congress. A flurry of controversy, high level shotscomplex examples of algorithmic bias making its way into people’s daily lives and the persistent accusations of technological censorship from the political right have also likely contributed to the cake of resentment.
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