Is Google Making us Stupid?

(A case study analysis of internet penetration and intelligence quotient of ASEAN

countries)

__________________________________________________________________

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Chapter I
Introduction
Philippines a country that takes the place for the second heaviest internet usage
worldwide, yet in the other hand known as brain dead for a country who ranked last in terms
IQ in the entire ASEAN countries. This paper begs to analyse the case of reliant usage of the
internet particularly the search engine the omniscient of knowledge like in demand Google
that ought to be one of the variables in a multivariant analysis that had lead people and in the
Philippines rather getting dumber. As observe people nowadays uses the internet
predominantly in the Philippines that lead to great impact on one’s life to another which is
good everything is easily accessible within reach locating unknown information need, but due
to the notation that everything is just click away of the vastness of information of Google
search engine that alter the brains of every person, backed by the different legit scholarly
studies and insignia that it is making the users dumber.

A small country with a huge population of more than a 100 million taunted as one of
the worlds slowest internet connection with the speed of 15 megabits per second, below the
minimum standards in which slower than the war-torn Syria, but still manages to tops
worldwide internet usage index with an average of more than 10 hours a day next to Thailand
that mostly visited are the social media sites. Against all odds still manages to rely on the net
which is good as it known as the vast library with multiple sources studying makes easier
today, but on top of that Philippines were called dead last in the ranking of smartest countries
in ASEAN even stated as Brain Dead of South East Asia and Manila also ranked among the
lowest in the worlds smartest cities with an intelligence quotient or IQ of 86. On the case of
this paper it wanted to prove if relying on internet specifically search engines like the Google
as a part of variable such reason why the Philippines maybe dumb as a part of multivariate
analysis, excluding other variables that could also affects one’s IQ such as poverty, poor
access to education, or poor educational system, but they are still be included as major
contribution on affecting people’s mind, and this paper only wanted to focus on one factors
that is on how Internet influences the brain.

The torrent of online data that flows the days had affected the ways in which how one
could interact with one another that even suggested that the inability to focus of a person may
be the result of acclimating to the fast at which information stream access a computer screen
and not only that it lost the ability to think deeply or comprehension as they easily turn in to
Google when they don’t know such a thing or two (Carrr, N., 2011). Losing both the ability

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to focus and understand things effectively means that person has a low IQ. Through this
paper it would seek all possible analysis to comprehend the case of what the internet actually
doing to the brains.

Objectives

Issues to be resolved are here outlined and how the issues were identified here are the
case following:

 To figure out the significant difference of internet usage in the

Philippines and other ASEAN countries and its intelligence, using
bivariate analysis and statistically treated with applied data analysis.
 Determine if usage of search engines like Google could actually affect
the mentality of a person, by citing multiple credible sources and
compare it to the findings of this paper.

Benefits

After the issues been resolved these are the common beneficial once the paper would
be release:

 Students- able to understand that when they don’t know something

doesn’t mean they would just flip out and open Google. Try to
comprehend things first and analyse the situation as stated on this
paper document depending too much on it they are making the brains
just for display.
 Teacher- to learn on slowing down on depending on Google to find
materials and instructions then later hand out to students, that aren’t
just lazy it’s also stupid.

Hypothesis

If the ASEAN countries number of internet usage per population or Internet

penetration is significantly related to its Intelligence Quotient or IQ, because it affects the
once ability to focus and to comprehend things, then it should be clearly analyse as this case
is proven to be correct statistically.

H1 Null Hypothesis there is no significant difference between the ASEAN countries

internet penetration and IQ level with the level of significant of a=0.05.

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 Ha Alternative Hypothesis there is a significant difference between the two
independent variance.

Chapter II
Review of Related Literature

From the synopsis in the magazine of Carr,N.(2008). Is Google Making Us Stoopid:

What the Internet is doing to our brains . Advocacy Journalism, 1,The Atlantic, as the author
main argument is that the Internet might have detrimental effects on cognition that diminish
the capacity for concentration and contemplation. Despite the title, the article is not
specifically targeted at Google, but more at the cognitive impact of the Internet and World
Wide Web. While long-term psychological and neurological studies have yet to yield
definitive results justifying Carr's argument, a few studies have provided glimpses into the
changing cognitive habits of Internet users. A UCLA study led some to wonder whether a
breadth of brain activity—which was shown to occur while users performed Internet searches
in the study's functional MRI scans—actually facilitated reading and cognition or possibly
overburdened the mind; and what quality of thought could be determined by the additional
presence of brain activity in regions known to control decision-making and complex
reasoning skills.
From another book Carr,N.(2011).The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our
Brains. W.W Norton & Company., the author expands his argument into the most compelling
exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he
describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”
―from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer―Carr
interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as
Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence
reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and
share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. In stark contrast, the Internet
encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its
ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and
consumption―and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more
adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration,
contemplation, and reflection.

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Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This paper is case study research paper that uses third party sources for the legitimate
site as the variables of this paper. It would use some graphs and other tabular illustrations to
show visualisation of data collected and its not gathered data it’s from already structured
information just to compare two sets.

To test the hypotheses the type of data analysis to be used in this case study is t test:
two sample assuming two unequal variance to find the significance of this study between
internet penetration and IQ.

Delimitation of the Study

For this case study the main scope of this study only limited to the ASEAN countries
and its level of internet penetration that would be significantly compared to it’s countries IQ
level to be a sample size to measure a bigger population. This concept is concerned with the
sampling method betting for a smaller sample to reflect the actual size of a bigger sample that
is the countries population.

Method of Data Collection

In collection of the observable data it would locate to find other case studies that had
visually interpretations of this paper. The data could be in every countries government sites
or just placeholder sites with credible information as basis of this case study main
information.

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Chapter IV
Results and Discussion
This chapter result and the findings of the study, which answered the question based
on the data gathered.

A. Results

In the first graph illustrate the number population that uses the internet per country in
ASEAN shown in a bar graph and it shows that the Philippines rank the highest from the
source of www.statistica.com.

Graph.1

Internet Penetration (www.statistica.com)

70,000,000
64,978,086

60,000,000

50,000,000 48,712,602
45,337,190

40,000,000 36,831,933
f(x) = 3711387.8 x + 1752130
R² = 0.21
30,000,000

19,489,364
20,000,000

10,000,000
4,359,057

0
242,640 511,052 645,251 540,454
m
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 From the second graph illustrate the Intelligence quotient or IQ of the ASEAN
countries and clearly shows that the Philippines ranks the lowest that marked as the dumbest
in the entire Southeast Asia and the source comes from world population review 2019.

Graph 2

Intelligence quotient
(world population review 2019)
Vietnam
f(x) = 0.72 x + 87.67
R² = 0.12
Thailand

Singapore

Philippines

Myanmar

Malaysia

Laos

Indonesia

Cambodia

Brunei

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Here is the tabular illustration from the following above and from here it could
compare the difference between internet usage and IQ of the Southeast Asian countries.

Table.1

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 Intelligence quotient
Internet Penetration
  B. Statistical
ASEANTreatment
Countries (world population
(www.statistica.com)
review 2019)
1 Brunei 242,640 91
2 Cambodia 511,052 91
3 Indonesia 48,712,602 87
4 Laos 645,251 89
5 Malaysia 19,489,364 92
6 Myanmar 540,454 87
7 Philippines 64,978,086 86
8 Singapore 4,359,057 108
9 Thailand 36,831,933 91
10 Vietnam 45,337,190 94
The tool that to be executed in this case paper is t-test: assuming unequal variance that

it applies it here as shows the two variables the internet penetration and IQ are both different

independent from each other and had big gap of difference in terms of number. The equation

( ∑ D)/N
t=
for the following data analysis is shown below:
√ ∑ D 2−(
(∑ D ) 2
N
( N −1 ) ( N )
)

N= is the total number of sample which in this case paper is 10

∑D= is the submission of X minus Y or the total of all the variables which X the internet
penetration and Y being IQ level.

∑D2= termed as the squared value of the submission of X minus Y.

Here the tabular illustration of the equation above to achieve the submission value and
terms of the said equation:
Table 2
  Internet Intelligence t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances
Penetration quotient
(www.statisti (world
ca.com) population
review
2019)

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 X Y X-Y (X-Y)^2
1 242,640 91 242,549 58,829,823,362
2 511,052 91 510,961 261,080,941,180
3 48,712,602 87 48,712,515 2,372,909,141,007,230
4 645,251 89 645,162 416,233,941,728
5 19,489,364 92 19,489,272 379,831,721,920,628
6 540,454 87 540,367 291,996,710,836
7 64,978,086 86 64,978,000 4,222,140,433,966,940
8 4,359,057 108 4,358,949 19,000,437,143,058
9 36,831,933 91 36,831,842 1,356,584,576,125,990
10 45,337,190 94 45,337,096 2,055,452,257,391,860
221,646,7 10,406,946,70
   ∑ d  ∑ d 2
12 8,972,800

In the table 2 find the missing terms in the t equation that are needed to fill within in
order to find the t stats and compare it to the critical value and here is the illustration:

Equation 1
( ∑ D)/N
t=

√ ∑ D 2−(
(∑ D ) 2
N
( N −1 ) ( N )
)

221,646,712
10
t=

√ 10,406,946,708,972,800− ( 49,127,264,940,410,900
10 )
( 10−1 )( 6 )

t=¿2.836805219

In this next equation would find the degrees of freedom by just subtracting the total
number of sample which is ten minus one to plot the t value and with an the null hypotheses
were tested at 0.05 (5%) level of significance.

Equation 1

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 Decision Criterion:
df =k −1
¿ 10−1
=9

With the degrees of freedom of 9 in the t table and significance level for one tail the t
critical value is 1.833 and for the two tails operation is 2.262. See: www.ttable.org

In the equation above illustrated the t value and the next table would display the
tabular illustration of the function in the said equation, and here is the tabular description:
Table 3

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances

  X Y
Mean 22164762.9 91.6
Variance 610468818895932 39.6
Observations 10 10
Hypothesized
Mean Difference 0  
df 9  
t Stat 2.836805446  
P(T<=t) one-tail 0.009752285  
t Critical one-tail 1.833112933  
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.01950457  
t Critical two-tail 2.262157163  

The table above clearly illustrated that there are is significant difference between the
number of internet usage in the country and its IQ difference in the different country as
demonstrated that t value is lesser than t critical either one tail or two tail operation which
rejected the null hypothesis so it has to accept the alternative hypothesis.

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Conclusion

Philippines being the highest number of internet usage and lowest IQ seems clearly
illustrate in the significance in this case study as the P (T<=t) one-tail and two-tail 1.833 and
2.262 is smaller it means there is a significant difference between intelligence and internet
usage. This case study concluded that there is truly significance between IQ and internet
usage, but there a lot of other variables that could truly affect such data like poor educational
system as the Philippines for the past year has entered to another term of school program
from kindergarten to college and so any other relating factor could just be a minor deter to the
bigger problem as from the journal studies from M. Iomar,( 2019). Philippine Education
System Makes Filipino Stupid: F4 Publications.

This case study is not near from perfect and it needs some few adjustments and proper
format for a truly accepted case study the researcher hopes in the near future it would do so.

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CITATIONS

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
https://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=JXFCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR125&dq=does+internet+make+you+dumber&hl=fil&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj
ButiPra3mAhVTFogKHcikDQoQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=does%20internet%20make%20you
%20dumber&f=false

https://www.statista.com/statistics/975067/internet-penetration-rate-in-thailand/

https://asean.org/asean/asean-member-states/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/281668/internet-penetration-in-southeast-asian-countries/

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