Survey: Internet will make people cleverer in next 10 years

An online survey published February 19 shows that over 75 percent of 895 interviewed netizens and experts believe that the Internet will make people cleverer in the next 10 years, according to a report from Reuters.

Most interviewees also expressed that the Internet would also be able to improve people's reading and writing abilities in the next 10 years. This survey was jointly conducted by the U.S.' Elon University and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

According to Janna Quitney Anderson, the director of Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center and an author of the report, 75 percent of experts believe that using the Internet can strengthen and develop people's intelligence and two-thirds of people say using the Internet can improve people's reading, writing and knowledge-transmitting abilities. 

However, 21 percent of interviewees hold an opposite opinion. They believe using the Internet too much might even weaken people's IQs.

Anderson said that there are still many people criticizing the influences brought by online tools such as Google and Wikipedia. 

The interviewees included scientific and technological researchers, commercial elites, consultants, writers and netizens. Of the 895 interviewees, 371 were regarded as experts.

The survey also found that 42 percent of the experts believe that in the next 10 years, anonymous online activities will "sharply decrease" due to the stricter Internet safety and identification system, but 55 percent of people believe it will still be easy to scan web pages anonymously.

By People's Daily Online