This is the fourth in a series of Internet expert studies conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

If you’ve read Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” you might also be interested in reading the following quotes:

Technology isn’t the problem here. It is people’s inherent character traits. The internet and search engines just enable people to be more of what they already are. If they are motivated to learn and shrewd, they will use new tools to explore in exciting new ways. If they are lazy or incapable of concentrating, they will find new ways to be distracted and goof off.

As a constant learner i find it fascinating to read about these issues as it’s becoming increasingly apparent that literary intelligence is very much under threat. The report goes on to say:

New literacies will be required to function in this world. In fact, the internet might change the very notion of what it means to be smart. Retrieval of good information will be prized. Maybe a race of “extreme Googlers” will come into being.

As we become more dependent on Google it’s up to us to choose what information we retain, research, reuse and deliver to others. After all how many times have you impressed your friends / family at the dinner table?

Even in little ways, including in dinner table chitchat, Google can make people smarter.

I know i’m going to be doing alot more thinking in the future. As our civilization embraces and changes with the rapid pace of technology and its advancements a final food for thought for all of is crystal clear:

Google itself and other search technologies will get better over time and that will help solve problems created by too-much-information and too-much-distraction.

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Maybe Google won’t make us more stupid, but it should make us more modest.

Be sure to read the rest of the report here in the embedded document preview, or on the Pew Internet Research Site titled The Future of the Internet IV. I’ve only touched on the first part referencing quotes from some amazing people. Here’s some quick links to rest of the parts:

1. Will Google make us stupid?
2. Will the internet enhance or detract from reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge?
3. Is the next wave of innovation in technology, gadgets, and applications pretty clear now, or will the most interesting developments between now and 2020 come “out of the blue”?
4. Will the end-to-end principle of the internet still prevail in 10 years, or will there be more control of access to information?
5. Will it be possible to be anonymous online or not by the end of the decade?

If you’re upto some more reading over the course of the weekend I would highly recommend, “The Eyes Have It: Real-Time Search Is Still Kind of Invisible to Users” and the superb documentation along with it + If you’re really interested it wouldn’t hurt to follow @Oneupweb & @karaswisher as they are responsible for creating and sharing it with us.

Note: For more documentations and stuff you can embed into your blog and be sure to check SlideShare and DocStoc.

Happy reading and weekend folks!