A recent internet survey of almost 900 web users revealed that most of them believed that the Internet is going to make people smarter and will improve reading and writing skills over the coming decade.
Apart from ordinary web users, the survey also included responses from 371 “experts” in science, technology, and web development as well as writers, consultants and business leaders.
The study conducted by Imagining the Internet Centre at Elon University in North Carolina and the Pew Internet and American Life project was inspired at least in part by an article written by Nicholas Carr in 2008 with the headline “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
Carr apparently believes that having information at our fingertips means we are no longer using our brains the way we used to and that this is having a negative effect on our thinking.
“What the ‘Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence,” said Carr. “The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking”
However, the results of this latest survey would indicate that far from making us dumber, most people believe the internet is actually making us brighter.
“Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge,” said Janna Anderson, Director of the Imagining the Internet Center and a co author of the study.
However, there were 21 percent that believed the opposite was true and that people who use the internet excessively may become less intelligent.
“There are still many people … who are critics of the impact of Google, Wikipedia and other online tools,” said the Director.
Another interesting finding was that 42 percent of the experts involved in the study believed that greater security and linking of information on the Internet will make it much harder to browse the internet anonymously by 2020.
Anyway, what do you think? Is the Internet boosting your brain power or is it whittling away at your IQ?
