Romir: most Russians are positive about digitalization

According to a Romir survey, 52% of Russians believe that digitalization does not have a negative impact on people. More often people aged 35 to 44 years (57%) and people with higher education (55%) speak positively. Most residents of cities with a population of 500 thousand to 1 million people (60%) and people with an income of 50 to 100 thousand rubles don't see a threat in new technology.

40% of respondents agreed that digitalization has a negative impact on people's lives. More people in small towns with a population under 500 thousand people (42%), as well as people with incomplete higher education (48%), hold such an opinion.

Among the negative effects of digitalization residents name loss of personal boundaries (37%), unemployment caused by robotization (19%), lower education levels (18%), reduction of live communication (13%), and lower cultural level (11%).

As the "digital generation," young people under 24 speak of the negative impact of modern technology even more often than Russians as a whole (45% vs. 40%). Generation Z believes that the negative impact of digitalization is primarily a decrease in the level of education (36%). In contrast to the average Russian, young people are less likely to associate digitalization with the loss of personal boundaries and data security (18% vs. 37%).

People with secondary and incomplete education (33%) are most afraid of being replaced by robots (and, as a consequence, unemployment). In Russia as a whole, one in five holds this view. Note that last year, 20% of Russians assumed that robots would do their jobs in the next five years (based on a joint survey by Romir and GlobalNR). Overall, 29% of people agreed with this thesis in 2020. Residents of India (61%), Thailand (36%), and South Korea (34%) have the most tolerance for robotization in their professions.

"The important thing is that digitalization does not become the antonym of humanization. It is important that behind the global digital transformation the meaning of human civilization is not lost - everything is done by human beings for human beings. On the other hand, any digitalization, any choice between the individual and the public is a compromise between personal freedom and the public good. And if we consider personal freedoms as the highest value, then we should be responsible for ourselves and our loved ones," noted Romir President, Ph.D. Andrey Milekhin.

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Romir specializes in marketing, media and socio-economic research since 1987.
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