Few could argue that one of the most important developments on the Internet in the past several years has been the rise of social networking sites, services and features.
While the positive implications of this rise may be numerous — ranging from keeping friends and colleagues more connected to helping users stay current on the zeitgeist by observing popular topics on, say, Twitter — there are also plenty of negatives, such as the erosion of personal privacy and actual face-to-face interaction.
But a survey of tech experts conducted by the Pew Internet Project and Elon University found that overall, the Web’s growth as a social medium is paying off. Datamation takes a look.
The researchers point out that the hand-picked survey respondents consisted of 895 people deemed technology experts, a sampling packed with industry leaders and academics.
They found that the respondents expressed an overwhelming optimism about where the ascendance of Web-based social tools is taking us. Some 85 percent of respondents to Pew’s survey agreed with a statement asserting by 2020, “I see that the internet has mostly been a positive force on my social world. And this will only grow more true in the future.”