Early last summer, I had the opportunity to participate, along with many other people, in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center  about expectations, fears and hopes for 2025 as society attempted to reach some kind of new equilibrium in light of the pandemic.

About ten days ago (somehow I missed the announcement, apologies!) the Pew Research Center released the first half of what promises to be a monumental look at the issues here; they received a huge number of very thoughtful responses to their questions, and have compiled them.

See

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/02/18/experts-say-the-new-normal-in-2025-will-be-far-more-tech-driven-presenting-more-big-challenges/

It's well worth at least skimming through the entire report, not just the highlights in the first section. I will note that there's a substantial -- roughly 8-month -- gap between when these responses were collected and the release of the report synthesizing them, and many individual views have undoubtedly evolved as we've all learned more, and experienced more. It was strange for me to read my responses from last July exploring what I then viewed as a very possible worst case in the absence of any data ruling it out; I'd say based on what we know now that very bad scenario is much, much less likely.

I'm always grateful for the extraordinary work that the Pew Research Center does in helping us to understand these developments, and I very much look forward to the release of the second part of the report (I'll share the announcement here).

Clifford Lynch
Director, CNi