• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, November 2, 2017

The idea of a connected future scares some people more than others.

The more tech savvy people are, the more optimistic they are, and the less savvy they are, the more pessimistic they are.

These are among the findings in a global study comprising an online survey of 190,000 people conducted by Mozilla. Of the survey respondents, more than half (52%) consider themselves to be tech savvy, with 11% of those being extremely tech savvy.

When thinking about the future, feelings range from being very excited to being petrified. Here are the feelings about a future in which the world is connected:

• 35% -- A little weary
• 31% -- Cautiously optimistic
• 19% -- On the fence
• 8% -- Super excited
• 7% -- Scared senseless

One of the top fears about a connected future relates to the loss of privacy. Here are what consumers said were their biggest fears:

• 45% -- Loss of privacy
• 24% -- Will lose touch with one another
• 15% -- Will be less safe
• 7% -- No fears about a connected future

One of the more interesting stats in the survey is the lack of importance of recommendations from friends or family in deciding what next smart device to purchase.

The top factors in deciding what new tech toy to buy are features, price and reliability. Dead last are recommendations from friends or family, below user reviews and expert recommendations.

Moving forward in a digitally connected future, consumers are most excited about how easy it will make life (27%), how it will make people smarter and better educated (15%), how it will bring the world together (15%) and how much fun it will be (8%).

The answer to one question pretty much summed up the current market situation: Only a quarter (26%) of consumers could explain to a friend what IoT is.