Like many American kids in the 1950s, Ed Fisher dreamed of space
travel. Comic strips and movies made it seem possible, and the work
of scientists made it seem probable, that people would soon travel
beyond the Earth. "Willy Ley's Rockets, Missiles, and Space
Travel changed my life," he said, "and I knew by fifth grade
that people would travel in space."
In 1960, Fisher fulfilled his dream of joining the space
program. As a project manager for NASA, he helped lay the
groundwork for the Apollo program. Clearly, the advance of
technology captured Fisher's imagination early on, and guided the
development of his career.
How do today's teens feel about the incredible pace of
developing technology, and how do they think technology will affect
the future? The 2003 Gallup Youth Survey shows that what was mere
speculation and science fiction now seems commonplace to most
American teens. And what is now the far curve of scientific
advancement will become, according to teens, a major influence on
their everyday lives.
DNA and WWW
The poll asked teens to rate how much influence each of eight
items would have upon their futures.
Lawmakers, religious leaders, scientists, doctors, and ethicists
have all had a hand in the future of genetic engineering; its
visibility on so many fronts may have contributed to kids'
expectations that it will be a lingering issue. Thirty-four percent
expect genetic engineering to have "a lot of influence" on their
futures. A plurality, 43%, expects it to have "some influence," and
only 22% expect it to have "not much influence."
And there is no doubt about the staying power of the Internet.
Forty-five percent of kids expect it to have a lot of influence,
42% expect some influence, and only 12% feel the Internet won't
have much influence on their future lives. Moreover, there is very
little difference among the demographic groups. All American teens
-- regardless of religious inclination, political ideology, region,
academic standing, age, or race -- have similar expectations about
the future of genetic engineering and the Internet.
The Space Case
Genetic engineering is already here and could affect millions of
young Americans over the course of their lifetimes. The Internet is
now no more exotic than satellite television. But chances are only
a few of today's teens will end up actually traveling in space.
Nonetheless, most teens expect it to influence their lives in some
way. Twenty-six percent say space travel will have a lot of
influence, 44% say it will have some influence, and 30% say it
won't have much influence on them in the future.
Among the items discussed here, the Internet was among the
highest on the list of eight rated by teens, placing behind
"political terrorists," rated as likely to have a lot of influence
by 52% of American teens. Genetic engineering placed farther down
the list, while space travel placed at the bottom, along with
"religious fanatics."
As Fisher notes, research into space travel has more influence
on teens' lives right now than they may think: satellite
television, cryogenics, the protective clothes of firefighters,
some branches of robotics, much computer programming, and many
other technological advances are byproducts of the space
program.
*The Gallup Youth Survey is conducted via an Internet
methodology provided by Knowledge Networks, using an online
research panel that is designed to be representative of the entire
U.S. population. The current questionnaire was completed by 1,200
respondents, aged 13 to 17, between Jan. 23-Feb. 10, 2003. For
results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence
that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3%. For a
complete description of the sampling and weighting procedures used
to conduct the survey, click here.
