Final Project #Dgst101

For my final project I conducted a poll of people’s opinions on various aspects of the modern, and future, internet. Several of the questions were Yes/No, while others required a one-to-two word response. I included several different age groups in my poll. Three people were under the age of 25. Three people were between 25 and 60. Two people were over the age of 60. I thought that it was important to poll a variety of demographics to see how age affects people’s views on a modern tool like the internet.

A majority of people in the poll believe that social media is not good for people. I was not surprised by this, because social media seems to cause many heated debates among people. People also overwhelmingly believe that increased digital connectivity is a good thing. I am also not surprised by this, because people greatly benefit from talking to friends and family more. The next category, artificial intelligence, seems to be greatly debated as well, as the vote was mostly split. Artificial intelligence is a difficult topic because no one really knows what the internet and the world itself will look like once AI is fully developed.

People also seemed to be mostly pessimistic about the future of the internet. I think that people fear what will happen as the internet becomes a larger part of our daily lives. In terms of the worst part of the internet, people mostly said harassment and data collection. Several others tied in to mental health. These seems to be widespread answers, as I have seen several of my classmates gives similar answers in group conversations. In terms of the greatest strength of the internet, people mainly answered with connectivity and accessibility. Just as with the weaknesses of the internet, I have seen many people give similar answers.

While this poll was not very deep, I think it provides a useful, general look at how people of different age groups view the internet. People seem to be mostly pessimistic about the future of the internet, and I can understand the reasoning behind this. On our current track, the internet will become a worse place. Change needs to occur for people’s views of the internet to become more positive.