Google has become a verb, Apple is the world’s most valuable public company and Amazon’s CEO is the world’s wealthiest person. Concerns abound that social media is being misused for nefarious purposes, and lawsuits about gender discrimination and sexual harassment at technology companies keep coming.
Yet, a new survey shows the public seems to underestimate the power and perils of the tech industry.
When asked which industry has the most power and influence, only 5 percent of Americans picked technology, ranking it behind government (38 percent), finance (21 percent) and Hollywood (16 percent), says a Morning Consult survey released Thursday.
What does that mean in a world where news is consumed on Facebook and Twitter, and where we can summon rides, groceries and takeout from apps on our phones? In which there are smart refrigerators and we can outsource mundane errands to others by clicking, and find our soulmates by swiping?
Some experts and academics were surprised by the results, market research firm Morning Consult noted.
After all, Americans often turn to technology to voice their outrage or take action, Blake Reid, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, told Morning Consult.
“[Tech has] a very soft sort of power” consumers might not grasp completely, Reid said.
The survey was conducted among 2,201 U.S. adults from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Also, despite backlash against tech for everything from phone addiction to fake news — some from the technology sector’s very own workers and investors — many Americans think things are worse in other industries when it comes to white-collar crime, corruption, racism, sexual harassment and nepotism.
But the technology industry has had its share of problems with sexual harassment. For example, the #MeToo movement may have gained momentum after the accusations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, but before that were the high-profile cases of Ellen Pao suing Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Susan Fowler writing the blog post that helped expose the sexist and toxic culture at Uber.
In addition, a recent survey by VC firm First Round Capital showed that 78 percent of female startup founders said they have experienced sexual harassment, and there’s a new book out called “Brotopia,” which shines a light on the problems women face in a heavily male tech industry.
Yet only 17 percent of those surveyed by Morning Consult said sexual harassment is a “major problem” in Silicon Valley, compared with nearly 50 percent who think it is a major problem in Hollywood.
Likewise, only 19 percent of those surveyed said corruption is a “major problem” in Silicon Valley, compared with 55 percent who think it’s a major problem in the government and in Washington, D.C.
Although survey participants came from regions across the nation — Northeast (402), Midwest (474) and West (511) — there were more from the South (815), where perhaps the media coverage about other industries overshadows that of the tech industry.
“Are these stories of key actors in technology industries seeking advantage in the same way that culturally resonates for Americans to hear stories about Washington ‘insiders’ and Wall Street ‘fat cats’?” Robert Asen, a professor of rhetoric, politics and culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, asked Morning Consult. “Or, are these stories told in a way that still presents technology as this outside force and assigns blame elsewhere?”
