Technology Fear News Flash: Search Not in the Top 10
October 15, 2015
I read one of those out-of-the-blue research study summaries. The information appears in Network World, a corporate family member of my favorite mid tier consulting firm IDC. The write up is titled with a zippy angle: Fear; to wit, “Technology Scares the Hell Out of People, University Survey Finds.”
I found the article a fiesta of take-it-to-the-bank information.
The snappy graphic caught my eye. Each of the Top 10 fears warrants a cartoon treatment. Here’s an example for running out of money in the future Fear Number Nine.
Source: Network World which used a cartoon from Chapman University. Academia and cartoons. Interesting.
I like the human carrying a weight (at first glance it looks like a debt bomb) up the pile of what appears to be back issues of unsold copies of print version of IDC reports. Adult Swim may do a feature based on this fear. That will be a winner.
On to another gem from the article. I highlighted this passage in the write up:
Technology-related concerns account for 3 of the top 5 biggest fears among Americans surveyed recently by Chapman University of Orange, Calif. — and a couple of the other concerns on the top 10 list could be considered tech-related worries as well.
And the tech fears are:
- Cyber terrorism
- Corporate tracking of personal information
- Government tracking of personal information
The write up adds:
Numbers 7 (Identity theft) and #10 (Credit card fraud) could also be classified as tech-related worries.
Quite a payload of fear. The write up does not include any details about the sample size, the methodology, or the folks doing the work which could be undergraduates or adjuncts for all I know.
Stepping back, let’s think about technology and analytics. On the surface, those in the sample are not exactly comfortable with what I call the Silicon Valley way. Thinking more deeply, the fears suggest that the survey suggests trust is not part of the warp and woof of the lives of the lucky folks in the sample.
My hunch is that if we polled some government officials, big time technology company CEOs, a couple of hundred top one percenters, and 20 somethings looking for a job in Palo Alto, the results might be different. I look forward to a report from IDC on this topic. I hope the author is my favorite IDC expert Dave Schubmehl. He is not afraid of technology based on my experience.
Stephen E Arnold, October 15, 2015
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