A survey of Internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the Internet itself improves. They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives. Key predictions: 1) The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world in 2020. 2) The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness. 3) The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.

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Pew Internet & American Life Project

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