US Regions Views of Technology and Employement Characteristics
Technology Survey of US by Region
A national survey was conducted by Pew Research Center in conjunction with Smithsonian magazine between February 13-18, 2014 by landline and cell phones among 1,001 adults. The objective of the survey was to better understand US views towards scientific and technological changes and how they viewed the future. Understanding public perception of these types of changes occurring in the US is important to understand how Americans view their place in the changing environment and if they are hopeful or anxious about the future.
The questions regarding scientific and technological changes were varied and include some issues currently being discussed today, such as “would you ride in a driver-less car?”. In the below table we see that 100, 1 of individuals in the survey were willing to ride in a driver-less car.
| Yes, would do this | No, would not do this | Refused | Don’t know |
|---|---|---|---|
| 514 | 460 | 1 | 26 |
However, if we look at a map of a recent analysis by NPR’s Planet Money [1] on census data of the same time period we see that the most common job in most states is truck driver. This type of employment may be made obsolete as more and more individuals become comfortable with driver-less vehicles. Unfortunately, changes and comfort with driver-less cars will inevitably lead to driver-less trucks.
Regional Differences
It would seem that perhaps we will see regional differences in views of certain technologies and the employment types. For instance, in the census region South nearly every state has the greatest occupation as Truck Driver except for Florida which has Primary School Teacher. Let’s see the ratio of positive views to negative views for this question by region.
Interestingly, we do see a higher ratio of people that would not ride in a driverless car regions were most individuals are trucker drivers. It does seem that there is a correlation with a negative response to a question that threatens the predominate occupation in a region.
Technology Views and Employment by Region
Below are two graphs, the top graph contains the ratio of people with a negative view of the future technology to those that have a positive view of the technology by region. We would expect that the region that has a greater percentage of people employed by an industry negatively impacted by a technology would also have a higher ratio of more negative views than positive. The next graph is a graph of the percentage of the population that is employed in a particular sector. Perhaps there are further correlations between certain questions regarding optimism of future technology and certain employment sectors. Go ahead and try different combinations to see if there is any visible correlations. Remember the ratio is negative to positive.
The questions selected for the technology views are Would you ride in a driverless car?, Over the long term, do you think that technological changes will lead to a future where people’s lives are mostly better or to a future where people’s lives are mostly worse?, Do you think Computers will be as effective as people at creating important works of art such as music, novels, movies, or paintings?, Will it be better for robots to become the primary caregivers for the elderly and people in poor health?, and Would you eat meat that was grown in a lab?.
Technology Views by Region
Employment by Region
Technological advancements have the power to dramatically transform certain industries. It would not be a surprise to see correlations between certain views and the general employment make up of a region. However, as you can see from the above graphs you may see unanticipated associations between variable. For example, out of all US region the Midwest has the most amount of people that would not eat lab grown meat despite the fact that the South employs more people in the agricultural industry compared to the Midwest. This industry would most likely be impacted by lab grown meat becoming common place.
I hope you find this information useful as it illustrates relationships between industries, technology, and the US population.
Data Sources
Employment Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Technology Views Data Source: Pew Research Center, April, 2014, “U.S. Views of Technology and the Future” Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/17/us-views-of-technology-and-the-future/
Note: The Pew Research Center bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data.
[1] “Map: The Most Common* Job In Every State.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.