The index of anxiety is growing: what worries Russians the most

The Russians began to worry about new reasons, not forgetting to continue to be nervous about the old ones. The results of the National Anxiety Index for the first quarter of 2023 have been published. The behavior of our compatriots was analyzed on the basis of media publications and activity in social networks: the further, the worse. Although it would seem that it is almost impossible to surpass 2022.

The “National Index of Anxiety” shows the anxieties that dominate in society, formed by the media and the life experience of Russians. The study is conducted quarterly based on media and social media analysis. The technique takes into account the degree of importance of the topic and the duration of the information wave, as well as the significance of the problem in user messages. The index makes it possible to find the “grey zone” of citizens’ anxieties, which usually eludes sociologists. Since regular polls are not set up to identify personal concerns, and the press cannot form an information agenda based on the private life of citizens.

For the study for the first quarter of 2023, more than 315 thousand media reports, more than 1.7 million posts on social media were analyzed, and it turned out that our fellow citizens had new reasons for concern.

Last year, these were SVO, and partial mobilization, and sanctions, and the growth of rumors about a drop in income against the backdrop of rising prices for housing and communal services. We can say that these were mainly our internal problems. In 2023, on the contrary, what worries the citizens of civilized countries again began to trigger our compatriots.

For example, on the first place in the list of global anxieties, the attack of … neural networks burst out.

“Without going into too much detail, people are alarmed that this is the beginning of the very future that science fiction films predicted, when artificial intelligence (AI) could get out of human control,” says Andrey Lebedev, author of the study.

On the one hand, of course, it pleases us that we have become afraid not only of our own kind, but also of cars. On the other hand, it is not a fact that, given the current state of affairs in the world, artificial intelligence, which is now in its infancy, will really grow into something humane and kind. He simply has no one to take a positive example from. Moreover, humanity is concerned not only with the fact of its own possible destruction, provoked by neural networks, but also with the fact that one day people will not be needed by universal AI.

Increasingly, various forecasts are being discussed about in which professions artificial intelligence and robots will be able to replace humans in the foreseeable future, and what the freed people should do in this case.

This state of affairs worries not only those who may lose their livelihood, but also the powers that be. On March 22, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and 1,000 other IT industry professionals issued a letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of artificial intelligence systems more powerful than GPT4. According to the authors of the letter, AI can indeed pose serious risks to society and humanity.

But basically, Russian anxieties in the first quarter of 2023 are still more national and domestic.

The top 5 anxieties included “The course of the SVO”, “Sabotage on the territory of the Russian Federation”, “Rumors of mobilization”, “Activities of PMC Ryodan” – the last discussion had a momentary surge caused by a specific informational occasion about resonant fights of teenagers in the shopping center and the emergence of new youth movements . Then she faded away.

Of the most “calm” Russian topics that nevertheless cause concern: the shortage of auto parts and, in general, import substitution.

Significantly, social groups that previously stewed in their own juice – for example, car owners, were able to spread their fears to a wider strata. So the shortage of spare parts for cars has become part of an impressive spectrum of anxieties – from the decline in the reliability of cars and air travel to the wear and tear of imported equipment due to sanctions and reduced sales.

So in January, the media reported that due to a shortage of auto parts, insurers almost stopped car repairs under OSAGO. There has been a trend towards an increase in car theft attempts due to the shortage and high cost of car parts. Another widely discussed topic is the difficulties with servicing and repairing foreign aircraft owned by Russian airlines. A wide discussion was caused by the statistics of the increase in the number of cases with emergency landings and non-departures of aircraft of Russian air carriers due to technical problems.

In the first quarter of 2023, Russians also began to worry about possible sabotage on the territory of the Russian Federation, the conflict around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and, in general, the persecution of the UOC, household gas explosions, severe cases of coronavirus among celebrities, using the example of the illness of the famous director Nikita Mikhalkov and the tragedy of figure skater Roman Kostomarov, as a result of complications who lost his feet and partially his hands.

As for domestic policy, the expected increase in rent due to changes in the norms of consumed resources attributed to general house needs caused the greatest resonance in the media and social media. The concern was caused by the increase in the price of travel in public transport in many regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the increase in fares for travel on toll federal highways.

There is a tendency to increase anxiety after high-profile incidents associated with explosions of household gas in residential premises due to depreciation of equipment. The most resonant case occurred in Novosibirsk: on February 9, as a result of a household gas explosion in a five-story building on Lineinaya Street, 13 people died. Among other cases that have come to the attention of the media and social media are gas explosions in residential buildings in Khasavyurt (January 8), in Kolomna (January 10), in the city of Efremov, Tula Region (February 7), Chita (March 9), Neftekamsk (17 Martha).

But much more than blowing up their own house because of dilapidated gas equipment, our compatriots are worried about possible sabotage by Ukraine. The Russians, as expected, began to worry about the attempts of foreign drone attacks, which took place not only in the regions bordering the neighboring state, but also in the Tula, Kaluga and Moscow regions. An alarming background was invariably raised by FSB reports about the prevention of terrorist attacks and sabotage in various regions, the detention of suspects involved in their preparation.

The special operation in Ukraine, which remained the most significant cause of the growth of anxiety among Russians, nevertheless changed its vector. Most often today, the media and social media express concern about the timing of the completion of the SVO, the duration of protracted positional battles, the loss of troops, unconfirmed rumors about a new wave of mobilization and changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of distributing electronic summonses.