Lenovo’s Survey: Users Think Tech makes Us More Empathetic
Most users of technology can vouch for the fact that our lives are a lot easier because of it. Tech manufacturer Lenovo recently released the results of a survey they undertook that showed that many users also consider tech to be beneficial to the human race overall. Respondents have stated that technology, on the whole, makes us more open-minded, charitable, tolerant, and more understanding.
The survey polled a user base of over 15,000 people from Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, India, China, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. From those respondents, Lenovo found that 89% of them stated that tech played a significant part in their everyday lives. Most individuals would think that tech would make people’s lives more comfortable by offering shortcuts for doing things. The study focused on trying to measure the impact of technology on human values.
Surprising Results
Over a third of the respondents claimed that they thought technology makes us more empathetic, and able to identify with fellow human beings. 38% of the user base believe that devices such as smartphones and tablets are making human beings more open-minded and tolerant. This tolerance likely comes from the increased usage of social media to share ideas, provoke discussion, and understand foreign cultures. A third of the respondents also claimed that they found technology makes human being more charitable, thanks to the rise of funding platforms for charity.
Despite the positives, there were quite a lot of respondents not so happy with the way technology affects our human values. 60% of respondents stated that they thought tech made humans more judgmental of one another, primarily through the lens of social media. The nature of easy validation and ‘immediate’ success took its toll as well, with 43% of respondents claiming tech made us less patient, and as much as 49% saying it made us more selfish. Many times, technology is blamed for very human failings when it’s clear that these failings exist regardless of the technology. Tech serves as a way to highlight behavior and offer an avenue for exploring it.
