The UK agency Mindshare has released its annual Trends Report 2017 and if the findings are to be believed our New Year’s resolution will be less technology in our lives. You can download a copy of the report here.
In what it describes as “digital dieting”, some 49 per cent of the 3000 consumers interviewed for the study agreed they wanted to regulate or moderate their use of technology.
Admittedly, 75 per cent of those surveyed agreed that technology has had a positive impact on their lives and 55 per cent said they’d welcome any technology that made their lives easier. However, “absolutely everyone” said there were concerning issues around online privacy, cyber-bullying, diminishing social skills and reduced attention spans.
Because of this respondents said they were limiting the time they spent on smartphones and time spent on social media.
Another “trend” to come from the report showed concerns around advertising becoming more sophisticated and serving us personalised ads. Forty nine per cent of people said more personalisation does not encourage people to think for themselves and 37 per cent said it worsens the divisions in society.
AR and VR may be the industry’s “next big thing”; however, 40 per cent of respondents to the Mindshare survey admitted they had no interest in the technology outside of using it for gaming.
Voice activated tech is touted as a big trend for 2017 but half of respondents had reservations about asking their devices for advice.
While a further 55 per cent said they did not trust technology companies to make decisions for them.
Commenting on the study, Mindshare UK’s CEO, Helen McRae, was quoted on the industry website Campaign.co.uk as saying 2017 will be about “a rebalancing, as well as a deepening of our relationship with technology”.
She added: “As our relationship with technology becomes ever deeper, growing numbers of people in 2017 will question the place it has in their lives, either through ‘digital dieting,’ or through concerns about the ‘tunnel vision’ effects of personalisation.
“At the same time we’ll see more intuitive use of technology through voice interactions, and growing numbers of people who are eager to use automation to make their lives flow more smoothly.”
