By John D. McKinnon and Danny Dougherty
WASHINGTON -- Americans have a paradoxical attachment to the
social-media platforms that have transformed communication, a new
Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds, saying they regard
services such as Facebook to be divisive and a threat to privacy
but continue to use them daily.
Across age groups and political ideologies, adults in the survey
said they held a negative view of the effects of social media --
even though 70% use such services at least once a day.
The deep-dive survey into views of technology draws a picture of
Americans struggling personally with their social-media habits and
looking for more supervision of social-media companies by the
federal government. Pollsters said they were surprised by the high
and relatively uniform dissatisfaction with social media across
demographic and political groups.
"If we saw this same, strongly negative force of opinion --
spanning partisanship and age -- stacked against any one of our
corporate clients, I think they would certainly be concerned about
their standing in the marketplace and in the halls of Congress,"
said Micah Roberts, a Republican pollster at Public Opinion
Strategies, who helped conduct the survey.
The findings about social media show that "people are kind of
struggling with how to handle it from a self-regulation point of
view and how we regulate it as a country," said Jeff Horwitt, a
Democratic pollster with Hart Research Associates, who also worked
on the survey.
While they take a skeptical view of social-media companies like
Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., Americans have favorable views of
Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit and Apple Inc., though
they have little faith in the ability of these three tech giants to
protect their personal data.
Americans also are generally optimistic about the benefits
technology will bring to their lives and to the economy, although
lower-income people and rural residents show significant levels of
worry about job losses from automation.
The survey of 1,000 people, conducted March 23-27, surfaced
feelings about many features of technology that permeate daily
life.
On average, Americans say a 14-year-old is old enough to have
his or her own smartphone.
But in a potentially worrisome development for the internet
economy, almost three quarters of respondents said they believe the
trade-off that underpins the huge sector -- consumers receiving
free services but giving up detailed data about their online
behavior -- is unacceptable.
And a solid majority of respondents said social-media services
such as Facebook and Twitter do more to divide Americans than bring
them together.
Responding to the survey, a Facebook spokeswoman said, "We've
introduced several new tools so people can take greater control of
their experience and made product updates to increase the number of
meaningful conversations and connections people have on Facebook."
Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon said it clearly communicates its privacy policies and
tries to design its services so that it is intuitive to customers
when their data is being collected and used.
Noah Theran, a spokesman for the Internet Association, a trade
group that includes Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter, said in a
statement: "Free and low-cost, data-driven online services offer
Americans enormous benefits. It's also important for people to have
stronger rights to control how their data is collected, used, and
protected by companies throughout the economy."
The poll findings reflect a sense that the public is seeing more
downside risks from some online services. The results also suggest
that Congress has a green light from voters when it comes to
overseeing the lightly regulated internet economy more closely,
particularly when it comes to privacy legislation that is now being
drafted.
More than half of Americans -- 54% -- said they aren't satisfied
with the amount of federal government regulation and oversight of
social-media companies such as Facebook and Twitter, while 36% said
they were satisfied with the current level of oversight. And more
than 90% of respondents said companies that operate online should
get permission before sharing or selling access to a consumer's
personal information, and that they should be required by law to
delete it on request.
Americans so far have mixed views about breaking up the big tech
companies, as Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has
proposed, with most concluding it isn't a good idea.
Unease with social media runs across virtually all groups, the
poll showed, but is highest among men, Republicans, supporters of
President Trump and older people.
Robert Noyes, 66, of Salt Lake City, said he views social media
as a divisive haven for crackpots and worse.
"The joke around here is, `Well, if it's on the internet it must
be true, '" he said. "You don't know who's saying it, what
qualifications they have, or what their sources are...We take
everything with a grain of salt."
He also questioned the government's ability to successfully
regulate the internet, given its experience with robocalls.
Social-media companies fared relatively better by some measures
among younger people, women, ethnic and racial minorities and
people with college degrees.
Tavin Felton-Stackhouse, 19, a student at Winston-Salem State
University in North Carolina, said he sees social media as
something that can "bring people together from all walks of life"
and circumvent government controls in authoritarian countries. Mr.
Felton-Stackhouse also appreciates how technologies such as
PlayStation have helped him stay in touch with friends, including
those who attend different colleges, he said.
While Hispanics are among some of the most avid users of social
media, the survey found, they also are among those who are trying
hardest to limit their time online.
"I'm definitely trying to limit it," said Jennifer Balarezo, 27,
of New Jersey. Too often, when she reads an article on Facebook,
"an hour or a half-hour goes by, and I've done nothing but watch
videos and read one article."
Concerns over privacy are prevalent across the country.
"That's why I participate in very few things," said Douglas
Libby, 63, of Madison, Maine. "I don't have Facebook, I don't
tweet...I refuse to, just because I don't want Uncle Sam or Big
Brother looking over my shoulder."
The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage
points.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 05, 2019 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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