Survey Finds Most Unimpressed By Tech Advancements Through 2010
We closed out last year by telling you exactly what we thought were the best offerings to emerge during the final year of the first decade
post-Y2K, and you could probably tell (particularly in the netbook
sector) that we were somewhat let down by how far we'd come. Or, we
should say, how far we haven't come. A new survey by the Zogby recently
polled thousands of Americans in order to find out how impressed (or
unimpressed) they were with the amount of technological advancements in
the past decade.
Back in the '80s, we all assumed we'd be whisking to work in flying cars and and the like by the year 2000, and yet, in 2010, many of the ways of life that we were used to back then remain the same today. Technology in the consumer realm has obviously advanced a bit more than in the automotive industry, but still not enough to please some of those who get a rush from living on the cutting edge. The survey found that overall, just 21% of those polled believe that we're entering 2010 more technologically advanced than they thought we would be by the start of this new decade. 37% confessed that the current level of technological advancement is just about where they thought it would be by 2010. That means that quite a few people expected to be further along than we are by now.
If you're wondering about the breakdown of those who felt we should have more advancements than we do, here's a look: those in the 18-30 year old segment were found to be "much less likely (13%) than older generations to say the technological advancements up until now have exceeded their expectations." Folks in the 70+ age group are "the group most likely to say we are more advanced than they thought we would be by 2010." The 35-45 year olds (36%) were the group most likely to be disappointed with the current level of technological advancement, while men (36%) are more likely than woman (28%) to think that more advances should've happened by 2010.
In a way, we kind of agree that we should've been a bit farther along in 2010 than we are, but in some cases it's amazing to see just how far we've come. Smartphones have managed to far exceed our expectations (after all, who thought you could browse the web on your phone back in 1999?), while storage technology is still lagging behind. We're still relying mostly on age-old hard drives, and SSDs have yet to become cheap enough to really use at large. What things do you think have advanced more than expected, and while still have aways to go to catch up to the times?
Back in the '80s, we all assumed we'd be whisking to work in flying cars and and the like by the year 2000, and yet, in 2010, many of the ways of life that we were used to back then remain the same today. Technology in the consumer realm has obviously advanced a bit more than in the automotive industry, but still not enough to please some of those who get a rush from living on the cutting edge. The survey found that overall, just 21% of those polled believe that we're entering 2010 more technologically advanced than they thought we would be by the start of this new decade. 37% confessed that the current level of technological advancement is just about where they thought it would be by 2010. That means that quite a few people expected to be further along than we are by now.
If you're wondering about the breakdown of those who felt we should have more advancements than we do, here's a look: those in the 18-30 year old segment were found to be "much less likely (13%) than older generations to say the technological advancements up until now have exceeded their expectations." Folks in the 70+ age group are "the group most likely to say we are more advanced than they thought we would be by 2010." The 35-45 year olds (36%) were the group most likely to be disappointed with the current level of technological advancement, while men (36%) are more likely than woman (28%) to think that more advances should've happened by 2010.
In a way, we kind of agree that we should've been a bit farther along in 2010 than we are, but in some cases it's amazing to see just how far we've come. Smartphones have managed to far exceed our expectations (after all, who thought you could browse the web on your phone back in 1999?), while storage technology is still lagging behind. We're still relying mostly on age-old hard drives, and SSDs have yet to become cheap enough to really use at large. What things do you think have advanced more than expected, and while still have aways to go to catch up to the times?
