Pew Report: The Internet of Things could drive people away from connectivity

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If the world’s rising interconnectivity was presented as a movie, an appropriate title might be: “The Attack of the Internet of Things.”

A new report from Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center — “The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are the Implications?” — takes a different approach to the same onslaught. It surveyed over 1,200 experts to get their takes on the consequences of a fully enabled Internet of Things (IoT), framed around this question:

As billions more everyday objects are connected in the Internet of Things, they are sending and receiving data that enhances local, national and global systems as well as individuals’ lives. But such connectedness also creates exploitable vulnerabilities. As automobiles, medical devices, smart TVs, manufacturing equipment and other tools and infrastructure are networked, is it likely that attacks, hacks or ransomware concerns in the next decade will cause significant numbers of people to decide to disconnect, or will the trend toward greater connectivity of objects and people continue unabated?

Fifteen percent of the experts predicted that, in the words of report co-author Lee Rainie, “significant numbers [of users] will withdraw to at least some degree from connected life due to possible risks that will arise as the IoT rolls out.”

When you start thinking about it, the list of risks could make anyone want to retreat to a thoroughly unconnected log cabin.

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]


About The Author

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.


 

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