{"id":2343,"date":"2013-05-03T12:25:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/?p=2343"},"modified":"2013-05-03T18:43:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T00:43:20","slug":"a-literature-review-does-the-internet-make-society-smarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/?p=2343","title":{"rendered":"A Literature Review: Does the Internet make Society Smarter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>A Literature Review: Does the Internet make Society Smarter?<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>April 23, 2013<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the last few decades, the internet has become a household phenomenon that has<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>reached hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Life without the internet seems unimaginable,<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>especially to the young generation of internet users. Despite the conventional function of<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>providing information and connecting people around the globe, the internet may actually impact<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>society in a more sophisticated way.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A review written by Stipe(2010) amplifies how the internet opens doors to people<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>searching for information that may not be normally available to the public. Through the use of<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>search engines, ordinary people all over the world can access previously secluded information<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>like corporate financial statements or industry news. In addition, people can filter their search<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>results by name, location, and heading (Stipe, 1996). Stipe\u2019s report, however, was published<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>nearly 20 years ago, a time when the internet\u2019s main function was strictly related to business and<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>before its use spread to common consumers of society (Keary, 2001). Today the internet<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>consists of users from all folds of society all over the world, ultimately changing the way the<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>internet is utilized. In the 21st century, internet usage became increasingly popular among<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ordinary people in western society reaching 90 million users in 2,000 (Keary, 2001). With the<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>dissemination of knowledge in vast quantities over the internet, society became more informed<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>and was enabled to obtain information on almost any topic within a short space of time. This<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>development in technology empowered consumers to make better consumption decisions,<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>triggering the improvement in quality standards across the board (Buyer, 1999). Furthermore, a<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>study conducted by Schwartz in collaboration with the United States Emergency Department<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>(ED) and the Emergency Medicine Residents (EMR) analyzes whether it is safe for ordinary<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>consumers to answer clinical questions in the ED with access to the internet. By utilizing a<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>search engine, ordinary people without any training in medicine could answer 59% of the<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>questions that EMR could not (Schwartz, 2010). Clearly, this study demonstrates that access to a<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>search engine on the internet enables people to be educated in fields they were not trained in.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The study concludes that the internet can significantly improve a person\u2019s knowledge in<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>medicine but should not be treated as a reliable source to treat patients (Schwartz, 2010).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Access to practically infinite information on the internet has also created a<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>negative effect on society: the threat of radicalization and misinformation (Keary, 2001). The<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>abundance of \u201cracist, sexist, and other extremist\u201d (Keary, 2001) information has given rise to<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>more organized, global, and calculating groups that promote hatred. More predominant in<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>regions on earth where unemployment is high and economic conditions are poor, access to this<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>type of information on the internet may radicalize the population leading to terrorism and<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>intolerance. In a different light, the internet may actually have a far softer but wide-spread<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>dumbing effect on society simply by wasting people\u2019s time (Pfeiffer, 2013). According to Yahoo<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>news, 80% of people web-surfing the internet are not being productive. Companies are<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>experiencing difficulties of preventing their employees from wasting time on the internet.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Imposing bans on smart phones and computers in the workplace is a gray area policy which<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>would portray the company management as \u2018big-brother\u2019 (Pfeiffer, 2013). Furthermore, a study<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>by Ugrin and Pearson, professor\/assistant professor at Southern Illinois University and Kansas<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>State University, demonstrates that people of all ages waste time on the internet. Younger people<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>tend to be on social networking sites while elderly people spend time checking their financial<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As any other technology, the internet presents both threats and opportunities to society.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is the responsibility of the individual to use the technology in a way that will benefit them.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Legislators and managers should foster productive use of technology by educating people rather<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>than enforcing rules. Experts are forecasting that the future holds an age of digitalization (Keary,<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>2001), an environment where virtually all data will be accessible on the internet. This means<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>that anyone with a smart phone device will be able to upload information on the internet for<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>anyone to view. As a consequence, one possible way of balancing your information input is<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>supplementing internet sources with articles, journals, and newspapers (Stipe, 1996). Facilitated<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>and independent journalists publishing on the internet also help diversify information by<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>presenting a variety of new perspectives. However, they may also cause data overflow (Keary,<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>2001). For people with personal or medical issues, the internet may provide important advice and<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>information providing solutions for specific health conditions (Schwartz, 2010). Online blogger<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>communities and social networking sites enable people to interact with others they have never<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>actually met in the physical world. In this regard, society becomes more integrated with the<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>presence of the internet.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To conclude, the internet is making society more tolerant and intelligent as a whole by<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>fostering integration and exposing people to information. With proper education and balanced<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>exposure to information, society will be able to utilize the internet as a gateway for technological<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>progress and social amalgamation going forward.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sources:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Pfeiffer, 2013, Up to 80 percent of time spent online at work is \u2018wasted,\u2019 according to study,<\/div>\n<div>Yahoo News, Sunnyvale CA, USA.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Keary, 2001, The internet and the changing information environment, Emerald Group Publishing<\/div>\n<div>Limited, Bradford, UK.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Schwartz, 2010, Are internet searches a reliable source of information for answering residents\u2019<\/div>\n<div>clinical questions in the emergency room, AMC, New York, USA.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stipe, 1996, Tap the internet\u2019s endless supply of information, A.M. Best Company, Oldwick,<\/div>\n<div>USA.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>By a student from Erasmus Univeristy, Rotterdam, NL<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Literature Review: Does the Internet make Society Smarter? April 23, 2013 In the last few decades, the internet has become a household phenomenon that has reached hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Life without the internet seems unimaginable, especially to the young generation of internet users. Despite the conventional function of providing information and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[98,104,114],"tags":[179,275,124],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-world-2","tag-internet","tag-iq","tag-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/file0006332128.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2SfUR-BN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2360,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions\/2360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}