ProCon’s Internet Quiz

Question: According to ProCon’s ongoing Internet survey, what do 54 percent of responders conclude?

Answer: By June 2025, 54 percent of responders agreed or strongly agreed that the Internet had harmed their attention span and ability to concentrate.

Question: Which of the following is true about the invention of the Internet?

Answer: All of these are true about the development of the Internet.

Question: What is “offloading” in relation to Internet usage?

Answer: “Offloading” is relying on the Internet for things we once knew from experience and memory.

Question: Which of the following is an argument for how the Internet is “making us stupid”?

Answer: This is a common argument for how the Internet is “making us stupid.”

Question: What is “IoT”?

Answer: All of these are characteristics of the IoT (Internet of Things).

Question: According to his popular 2008 article, what did technology writer Nicholas Carr suggest might be “making us stupid”?

Answer: In the 2008 article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr argued that the Internet as a whole, not just the widely used Google search engine, has been “chipping away [at our] capacity for concentration and contemplation.”

Question: “People are getting dumber. That’s not a judgment; it’s a global fact.” This statement by researcher Evan Horowitz was in response to a decline in which of the following?

Answer: This quote was in response to news of an IQ drop of seven points per generation; many observers attributed this to, among other factors, the rise of the Internet and too much technological stimulation.

Question: Which habit, often tied to Internet usage, causes a drop of 10 points in our functional IQ?

Answer: Contrary to popular belief, humans cannot multitask and still perform to the best of their ability; one study found that multitasking drops our functional IQ (our ability to perform everyday tasks) by 10 points.