Press Release | May 24, 2022

New Research Reveals Inflation #1 Concern – and Consumers Don’t Want Government Hurting Their Tech Services

by 
Laura Ambrosio
Most Americans, regardless of political affiliation (68%), believe inflation is the most important issue facing them and their household, according to new research from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®. Overwhelmingly, Americans do not view tech regulation as a priority, with only 3% of U.S. adults ranking antitrust regulation of technology companies as a top issue.

Consumers also say it would “mostly be a bad thing” if government regulated popular technology services, with 87% of respondents vowing to take some sort of action and 57% less likely to vote for a member of Congress. 
 
“Consumers get a lot of value from technology products and services – many are free or low-cost, which makes a big difference especially to those hurting from inflation,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. “As proposals in Congress seek to break up technology companies and remove services that consumers love, we see that policymakers are out of touch with what issues are really important to Americans.”
 
Consumer engagement with technology services remains high, with 91% of U.S. adults using at least one service from major technology companies at least a few times per week. Email services are most frequently used (70%), followed by social media platforms (60%) and streaming video services (57%).
 
CTA deployed the online survey among 1009 U.S. adults (18+) between May 16-18, 2022, to gather insights surrounding consumers’ engagements with tech services as well as perceptions and sentiments around regulations/policies that might affect them.