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Updated on Apr 25, 2024
Updates quarterly

Tracking Trends in the Technology Industry

Consumer attitudes on breaking up big tech and technology companies' impact on society

Americans’ perceptions of the technology industry, our nation’s engine of innovation, are rapidly changing. Consumers are becoming more skeptical of its goals and impact on society, and many are calling for greater transparency and stronger government regulation. This tracker keeps a pulse not only on the challenges facing tech industry leaders, but also on the opportunities and enthusiasm for forward-looking technologies.

Morning Consult is tracking consumer trends in the technology industry through a monthly survey of U.S. adults.

Find a more detailed methodology for this monthly tracker below.

Key Takeaways

  • Consumers are less rosy about tech’s impact on society, mental health and political discourse. Gen Z are particularly grim about big tech’s influence on society at large; roughly equal shares of the cohort believe the impact is positive versus negative (30% and 29%, respectively), compared to higher shares of the average population who believe tech has a more positive impact than a negative one (36% and 25%, respectively).

  • More Democrats are in favor of breaking up Big Tech. When we began tracking, 50% of Democrats said they would support major tech companies being broken up into smaller ones; that figure is now 58%. There’s also slight growth in the share of Republicans who feel the same, though they have generally lagged Democrats on this front.

  • Consumers remain confident in the future of tech companies. Despite persistent layoffs, perceptions of impact inching down in several key areas, and continuing antitrust action taken by the government, the majority of U.S. adults still feel that tech companies’ best days are ahead.

Data Downloads

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Are Tech’s Best Days Ahead or Behind?

Share of U.S. adults indicating whether they think technology companies’ best days are ahead or behind
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Interest in New Technologies

Share of U.S. adults interested in using each of the following technologies in the next five years:
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Tech Industry Favorability

Share of U.S. adults with a favorable impression of each of the following:
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Big Tech’s Perceived Impact on Society

Major technology companies’ perceived net impact* on the following:
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*Net impact represents the share who said Big Tech has a positive impact minus the share who said it has a negative impact.

Support for Breaking Up Big Tech

Shares indicating they would support major technology companies being broken up into smaller ones
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Source of This Data

Methodology

The Technology Industry Monthly Trend Tracker relies on Morning Consult’s proprietary survey research capabilities. Interviews are conducted online, and the data are weighted to approximate a representative sample of U.S. adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region. Results from the full survey have a monthly sample size of roughly 2,200 U.S. adults and an unweighted margin of error of  +/-2 percentage points.

About Morning Consult

Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act. Learn more at morningconsult.com

The authors would like to thank Jordan Marlatt for his contributions to this research.

Email [email protected] to speak with a member of the Morning Consult team.