ashleywollam.com » statistics http://ashleywollam.com Sun, 23 May 2010 15:13:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Does Google Make Us Stupid? http://ashleywollam.com/archives/472 http://ashleywollam.com/archives/472#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:35:11 +0000 Ashley Wollam http://ashleywollam.com/?p=472 Does Google Make Us Stupid? Originally put forth by Nicholas Carr in the July/August 2008 issue of The Atlantic, this idea received a rebuttal one year later by Jamais Casico (“Get Smarter“) in that same publication. The next chapter in this debate is being written by experts responding to the Pew Research Center (“Does Google Make Us Stupid?“) – and the answer seems to be a resounding, “No.” 76% of respondents (internet experts) agreed that, “By 2020, people’s use of the internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid.”

Curiously, Janna Quitney Anderson and Lee Rainie, who authored the description of the survey, seemed to assume that just because experts suppose so, it will be true. To my eyes, Nicholas Carr isn’t wrong – yet. Only time will tell.

]]> http://ashleywollam.com/archives/472/feed 0 Capitalist 2.0 http://ashleywollam.com/archives/238 http://ashleywollam.com/archives/238#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:34:11 +0000 Ashley Wollam http://ashleywollam.com/?p=238 “80 to 90% of user-generated content on the web, including comments and questions, is created by less than 10% of web users,” according to Rubicon, a strategy and marketing consultancy [1]. The findings included in their most recent report must seem a breath of fresh air to  Jack Nielson, who predicted somewhat similar numbers two years ago [Link]. Together, these two models challenge the notion that material found online hardly represents society’s true sentiment, rather than just the views of a small number of energetic enthusiasts.


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