GLOBAL – NEW YORK, April 24, 2012: Euro RSCG Worldwide recently undertook a major global study in order to better understand the new realities of modern-day life and how people are reacting to them. The result shows that along with modernization, there is also a growing sense of dissatisfaction from people.
Working with research partner Market Probe International, Euro RSCG surveyed 7,213 adults in 19 countries around the world, representing a combined population of 3.6 billion.
"There is a growing sense that we need to take some time, individually and as a society, to think about the direction in which we’re moving and whether we’re going to be happy with where we end up," says Marianne Hurstel, vice president, BETC Euro RSCG and global chief strategy officer, Euro RSCG Worldwide.
Highlights of the study include:
• Sixty percent of the global respondents believe society is moving in the wrong direction. More troubling, 4 in 10 sometimes feel they’re actually wasting their lives. Seventy-two percent worry about society’s moral decline.
• While just 10 percent believe digital technology will have a negative effect overall on the world, 42 percent believe it’s too soon to tell—suggesting a relatively strong level of distrust and unease about what is to come.
Half the sample worry that digital technology and multitasking are impairing humans’ ability to think deeply and to concentrate on one task at a time. Around two-thirds believe society has become too shallow, focusing too much on things that don’t really matter.
Fifty-eight percent worry that the world is losing the ability to engage in civil debate. Seven in 10 worry about the rise in political extremism, and 64 percent are concerned about the rise of paranoia and conspiracy theories. More than a quarter of the sample (and one-third of millennials) say social networking is making them less satisfied with their own lives.
“Our probe into technology use revealed a number of emerging concerns,” says Tom Morton, chief strategic officer, Euro RSCG New York and co-chief strategy officer Euro RSCG North America. “First is the fear that social media and online data collection are chiseling away at our right to privacy. A majority worry that technology is robbing us of our privacy, and 6 in 10 think that people are wrong to share so much of their personal thoughts and experiences online. This isn’t an outsider’s or laggard’s concern: Two-thirds of millennials believe that their generation has no sense of personal privacy.”
“At the same time,” says Morton, “people worry that hyper-connectivity is actually making us feel less connected. More than half the sample worry that digital communication is weakening human-to-human bonds. As marketers, we have a dual role to play—to assuage people’s concerns about privacy and to create more meaningful connections.”
Marianne Hurstel adds, “We have so many tools at our disposal today to shape our individual existences. Now people are seeking to apply that same level of control to society and the ways in which it is evolving. We’re going to see more of a push for a sort of ‘hybrid’ way of living that combines the best of the old and new—keeping current conveniences while holding fast to those traditions and values that are in danger of disappearing."
