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Does the internet make you smarter?

What is the effect of the internet?

  • The vast resources of the internet can only serve to improve the collective intelligence of society.

    Votes: 10 28.6%
  • internet make dummer!

    Votes: 4 11.4%
  • The internet is responsive; you get what you give.

    Votes: 21 60.0%

  • Total voters
    35
3/4 of the content on the internet is just plain wrong. The more you read, the more misinformation you spout to your friends and acquaintances. It's a rumor mill gone bad.

Sooo... No.

(Comment regarding gullible Liberals deleted)

The internet is just like books... lies in propaganda out... Facts in, facts out.

The only thing you can count on is that authors are biased and nearly NEVER tell to the whole story, only the parts that support their agenda.

Listen to a broad range of pontiffs, then do YOUR OWN research, or read from the source... that's what responsible adults do when they seek the truth and not merely support for their own beliefs.
 
yups good guess midi:)

-__- Massive facepalm, did you read my first post on this thread? a whopping 42% of the internet's populous spend their time on social networks. This doesn't include blogs, forums, email, or such apps. 31% of the internet, on the other hand, is consumed on facebook. To me, facebook and twitter are great resources for fueling stalkers, spiraling IQ's and EQ's, and a reason for people to lose physical contact might it be phone or trips. Then again, these softwares are politically active, and have many tactical business ventures. This serves marketing, SEO, Splogs, etcetera-- which are counter productive for the masses and the inept occupant. This is only the darkside I'm covering, however, there are many far good keypoints.
 
-__- Massive facepalm, did you read my first post on this thread? a whopping 42% of the internet's populous spend their time on social networks. This doesn't include blogs, forums, email, or such apps. 31% of the internet, on the other hand, is consumed on facebook. To me, facebook and twitter are great resources for fueling stalkers, spiraling IQ's and EQ's, and a reason for people to lose physical contact might it be phone or trips. Then again, these softwares are politically active, and have many tactical business ventures. This serves marketing, SEO, Splogs, etcetera-- which are counter productive for the masses and the inept occupant. This is only the darkside I'm covering, however, there are many far good keypoints.

i went with the 3rd option as you guessed but i use the internet (i left this out for my nerdyness now i have to add it) for manic reaserch and other assorted projects and experiments
 
It is a double edged sword. It allows small groups to send out information in efforts to control the collective but it also allows individuals more access to knowledge. It all depends on how its used.
 
It is a double edged sword. It allows small groups to send out information in efforts to control the collective but it also allows individuals more access to knowledge. It all depends on how its used.

This is what fascinates me with the internet that I've forgot to inspect, you can't find the collectivity the internet has to offer in your locality, many times it's just not possibly unless you live in a product based world. The internet is, on the other hand an open book, which can't hide racism, beliefs, teaching, such others that the libraries, government and public schools might've had banned. This is indeed double edged.
 
I have learned things like Photoshop and how to fix something around the house from the internet so it has been a usefull tool but on the other hand it can be a huge time waster.
I look at it like school you can learn from it or you can just socialize.
 
What is the effect of the internet?

In a word, yes.
The internet has allowed me to learn everything I ever wanted to know, by giving me access to the sum of collective popular knowledge.

As much as I love books, they never did that.
Not even a whole library full of books could do that.
 
If you're stupid, it's not Google's fault

I believe that, since the internet is more 'responsive' (that is, a user is primarily exposed to his/her own personal inquiries), it perpetuates both stupidity and intelligence. But I haven't spent much time on this subject- I'm interested to see what you guys think.

I don't know if the internet is making people 'smarter'. I do think that some aspects of the internet (capability to talk with people from all over the world, for example) expose people to things that they may not have been exposed to before. And therefore, broadening their minds in some useful and meaningful ways (ie: not p0rn).
 
Someone said earlier that it is a double edged sword and I believe that is apt. If I am disciplined to use my time well, it can only help. This site is a great example; there are many intelligent and well spoken people from all parts of the political spectrum. Avoiding entanglements with time wasting elements is a key; maybe not as much 'fun' as engaging in today's round of 'is Obama ruining America' or 'Bush is STILL not my President' but shepherding one's resources, of which time is one, is key to a good outcome.

My long winded way of saying; it DOES provide that option. :mrgreen:
 
It's plausible.

However,... one can't help but notice the numbers of people who claim to be seeking to educate themselves,... who will fight you with everything they can in order to maintain their ignorance about some things.

It's like people who hop from one church to another until they find the one that makes them most comfortable with the way they already see things.

:roll:
 
This is a loaded question. The internet could make one more intelligent ...or... it could make them slackers. It all depends on the content. If you use the internet to play those flash games all day, you obviously won't get any smarter. On the other hand, if you use the internet to acess tutorials, ebooks, educational videos, or news you will gain some knowledge.

I use the internet for games sometimes, but the main content I access is tutorials and news. After all the tutorials I've studied; I'm a master at Photoshop, PHP, mysql, Java, and now I'm even starting to study C++.
 
I think that the internet has exposed me to vast amounts of information that I would not have been able to easily access. However, the ease of accessing that information definitely makes us LAZY, intellectually, IMO.
 
Considering the primary activity it displaces, i.e. zoning out in front of the TV, yes the internet does make people smarter on average. If you give a kid a more interactive toy to play with he'll tend to get smarter than he otherwise would be. Same idea with the internet versus vanilla television.
 
I look at it like school you can learn from it or you can just socialize.

Usually 'schools' are supposed to discipline students to the former.
 
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