Internet's Influence on Intelligence

Everylyric

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As we all know, the internet has influenced everyone who has used it in at least some way. Some more than others. For example, messageboards allow you to voice an opinion/idea on a subject and wait for some else's opinion. You are exposed to many different view points/experiences. Also, the internet is a great way to educate yourself cheaply. Chatrooms are like being connected to an unlimited amount of people over a phone line at once. Instant messaging allows you to keep up a bunch of seperate conversations at once. People fall in love through the internet. People ask each other out through the internet. People breakup over the internet. The internet can be used to study various topics derived from reliable sources. Trips to the library can be cutdown on unless for actual college research. Information is easy to come by on subjects and easily accessible online. Without the internet, I could perhaps be half as smart as I am now. I certainly wouldn't be the same individual.

The internet has revolutionized the market. If a local store doesn't have the item you want, you don't have to drive across the country or fly to another country to acquire the item(in most cases), you can just order online and have it shipped to your house.

The internet in theory has the ability to cause powerful people to be more careful due to the fact their flaws/mistakes/corruptions can be exposed by intelligent people.

There's too many benefits of the internet to list...

To me, many more people have the chance to have a pretty all-around education opportunity from the internet ALONE. You don't have to be a college graduate to be very intelligent, nowadays.

Intelligence is everywhere, and its up to anyone and everyone to seek out what they wish to learn. There are some cases where this isn't possible, but in many it is quite possible.

Anyway, what's everyone else's thoughts on the effect internet has had on education and intelligence?
 
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I think that people only can increase their general knowledge when browsing in internet :)

Yeah, because excessive amounts of porn is very educational. "Browsing the net" is a blanket term for the whole damn thing and I refer you to the Avenue Q song "The Internet is For Porn."

Don't get me wrong, I think that the internet is a wonderful tool with learning materials far-reaching and insightful. But it's also a semi-public haven for organizations like WBC and Stormfront.
 
There is a wealth of information on the internet. There is also a wealth of disinformation on the internet. People praise Wikipedia for providing easy access to information, but its fatal flaw seems to be the fatal flaw of all information in the internet. There is no way to back up the information without verifying it offline. It has been proven several times that people on Wikipedia are posting things that are simply untrue. There are high school dropouts posing as doctors and giving false first person accounts. We do not know what is the truth and what is an outright lie, or even what is a failed misguided attempt at truth. There won't ever be a sloution to this problem, so I've got to say that the internet won't ever be a legitimate source other than to repoduce material that can be found on hard print in peer reviewed journals.
 
There won't ever be a sloution to this problem, so I've got to say that the internet won't ever be a legitimate source other than to repoduce material that can be found on hard print in peer reviewed journals.

What happens IF the internet replaces hard print entirley?
 
Dave, to a certain extent, you are right. Wikipedia information will never be able to be accepted as fact. Virtually all of the religious and poliitcal articles are useless. That said, I still find it a useful tool in certain cases, especially when I am refreshing my mind on a topic in in which I am already quite knowledgeable. The websites simple, logical layout make it ideal for this kind of perusing, but I agree, we'll never be able to accept it like we would a real encyclopedia (where every fact is verified by three other sources -- can't be other encycolpedias).
 
There is a wealth of information on the internet. There is also a wealth of disinformation on the internet. People praise Wikipedia for providing easy access to information, but its fatal flaw seems to be the fatal flaw of all information in the internet. There is no way to back up the information without verifying it offline. It has been proven several times that people on Wikipedia are posting things that are simply untrue. There are high school dropouts posing as doctors and giving false first person accounts. We do not know what is the truth and what is an outright lie, or even what is a failed misguided attempt at truth. There won't ever be a sloution to this problem, so I've got to say that the internet won't ever be a legitimate source other than to repoduce material that can be found on hard print in peer reviewed journals.

There is also information and disinformation in the print media, in books, in ads, everywhere. Just because an idea can be backed up by having been printed in hard copy format doesn't make it any more credible.

The internet is a powerful tool for communication, probably the most powerful tool we have. I think one of the best things about the net is that it does expose people to a lot of information, much of it questionable. It forces one to evaluate information, and decide which is believable and which is not, in other words, to think for one's self.

Yes, it could increase the average intelligence, if we use it properly.
 
Yeah, because excessive amounts of porn is very educational. "Browsing the net" is a blanket term for the whole damn thing and I refer you to the Avenue Q song "The Internet is For Porn."

Don't get me wrong, I think that the internet is a wonderful tool with learning materials far-reaching and insightful. But it's also a semi-public haven for organizations like WBC and Stormfront.

So may i ask? Are you suggesting that everyone who uses the internet is using it for Porn? and that they only Mask this use by also browsing other sites? It sure seems that you are saying this?
 
There is also information and disinformation in the print media, in books, in ads, everywhere. Just because an idea can be backed up by having been printed in hard copy format doesn't make it any more credible.

The internet is a powerful tool for communication, probably the most powerful tool we have. I think one of the best things about the net is that it does expose people to a lot of information, much of it questionable. It forces one to evaluate information, and decide which is believable and which is not, in other words, to think for one's self.

Yes, it could increase the average intelligence, if we use it properly.

That's why I said that the most reliable sources are peer reviewed journals. They have a level of established credibility. At least when you pick up a newspaper you usually know what you are going to get. If you pick up a Washington Times, you get a conservative view. If you pick up a Washington Post, you get a liberal view. There is still a bias, but everyone with half a brain knows the bias is there before making a choice. One of the problems with internet sources is masking the true intent of what is being said. You have no idea of who is saying it, and in most cases, you don't know the bias that these people have shown on previous occasions. Using the internet as a news source doesn't make you think for yourself anymore than regular print media, in fact since many internet sources do not have a known track record of leaning a certain way on certain issues, many people accept what is said at face value. That is why I believe that unless a site has a proven reputation of being a credible source, you cannot accept it as being more than the opinion of someone you would meet on the street.
 
So may i ask? Are you suggesting that everyone who uses the internet is using it for Porn? and that they only Mask this use by also browsing other sites? It sure seems that you are saying this?

That is not at all what I was saying. I was responding to the first post which stated that people can only increase their intellectual base when browsing the internet; I was simply showing that there is a significant amount of non-intellectual material available on the internet as well. Yes, the internet can be a wonderful tool for learning and intellectual advancement. It can also be a source of mindless indulgence. There was a one-sidedness in the first post that I wished to correct, nothing more.
 
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