Research from Pew on digital innovation to enhance democracy

Important new research from Pew on how experts predict digital innovation will affect democracy between now and 2030.

Lots of very interesting findings—and disagreements—but a few I honed in on:

What was disheartening was this annotation to the interviews that claimed most experts still see technology as neither inherently helpful nor hurtful, but simply a tool. The fact that this foolish line of thinking continues is discouraging enough, but coming from so-called experts is scary.

Technology has the biases of those who create it built in, and user experiences especially have the ability to be incredibly manipulative. We have to hold in tension what tech can and can’t do from a utility standpoint, and hold tech leaders accountable to the outcomes their products directly or indirectly create. Tech doesn’t have to be inherently bad, but thinking it’s inherently neutral is dangerously naive.