DigitalBarometer 2023: Between disillusionment and enlightenment
As part of its focus on "Digitization and Society," the Risk Dialog Foundation annually compiles the DigitalBarometer, supported by Mobiliar Genossenschaft. It is a representative study for Switzerland with differentiated analyses on various areas of digitization. The latest edition has just been published.
After the Covid 19 pandemic made it very clear what digitization can do, the challenging aspects of "pure digital" are now also becoming apparent. While euphoria prevailed in part in last year's edition of the Mobiliar DigitalBarometer, the current 2023 results show that the Swiss still rate digitization positively overall, but at 44 % somewhat lower than in the previous survey (see 54% 2022). In addition to the topics "Digital data," "Digital opinion forming," "Cybersecurity," "Future of education" and "Metaverse," "Future of work" is a focal point. The most important findings of the Mobiliar DigitalBarometer 2023 study are summarized below.
Digital balance: THE challenge for the future
The study shows that employees are highly willing to change. Employers have a responsibility in this regard: Specifically, 50% of all Swiss employees stated that they wanted to adapt their own behavior to the changing world of work, for example with further training. Just under three quarters of respondents see the responsibility for adapting the working world(s) to the development of digitization as lying with employers.
Another finding is the need for digital balance: In times of advancing digitization, the desire for "offline" in private and professional life is very great. Almost half of all respondents would like to be offline more often in their day-to-day work (digitally unreachable, more analog contacts). For the private context, as many as 70 % express this need.
Metaverse largely unknown
62 % of all respondents have never heard of the metaverse or have no idea what the metaverse is. So it seems that here a term is currently overrated by the media.
However, attitudes toward digital health data have increased. Last year, only around a quarter of the Swiss population saw the use of health data as an opportunity for society. This year, the figure was already 38 %.
The DigitalBarometer also shows a downside to digitization: For example, the digital discussion culture is still perceived as a major threat: 54% of respondents see it this way. 73 % of respondents state that they themselves are responsible on this issue. Target group-specific measures are needed to enable reflective information and communication in the digital space.
Between automation worries and flexibility euphoria
The respondents see working independently of location and time as a clear opportunity. As in the previous year, however, there is a high degree of ambivalence on the subject of automation. There are also clear differences depending on the industry in which the respondents work. For example, significantly fewer opportunities from digitization are seen in manual occupations, such as construction, agriculture and forestry, or in trade and transport than in other sectors. There are also significant differences in the perception of opportunities between people with a high level of education and those with a lower level of education. It seems important to address the possibilities of the new world of work and to identify different industry-specific options. While location-independent working is not possible for all industries, new leadership skills, for example, may become more important in the industries mentioned above. At the moment, this raises questions about which skills will be needed in the future and which jobs will continue to exist or change and how. What would it mean if certain jobs were (partially) automated?
Caution against individualization trend in continuing education
Just under half of those surveyed in the DigitalBarometer (45 %) associate opportunities with personalization and individualization of training. Fifty % also see opportunities in time- and location-independent learning. In contrast, education experts stress the need to exercise caution and not to forget the relevance of social interaction. They recommend thinking carefully about which learning processes should take place in groups or be supported by teachers on site, and which can also be carried out online at one's own pace. The qualitative interviews conducted by the study authors revealed a discrepancy between the needs of young adults in initial education and the recommendations of experts. While young people strongly praise the advantages of location- and time-independent training and in some cases see hardly any advantages in face-to-face instruction, experts point out the dangers of this development. While it seems to make sense to offer certain learning modules online and to support independent learning, it remains important to maintain physical exchanges.
Sources and further information: www.risiko-dialog.ch
