MARINA GORDON. The internet often tells us what we think we know, spreading misinformation and nonsense while it's at it. It can substitute surface for depth, imitation for authenticity, and its passion for recycling would surpass the most committed environmentalist. In 10 years, I've seen thinking habits change dramatically if information is not immediately available via a Google search, people are often completely at a loss. And of course a Google search merely provides the most popular answer, not necessarily the most accurate. Nevertheless, there is no question, to my mind, that the access to raw information provided by the internet is unparalleled We've all read that the internet sounds the death knell of reading, but people read online constantly - we just call it "surfing" now. What's being read is changing, often for the worse; but it is also true that the internet increasingly provides a treasure trove of rare documents and images, and as long as we have free access to it, then the internet can certainly be a force for education and wisdom. DANIEL LEZAMA. Sometimes I think my ability to concentrate is being nibbled away by the internet. In those quaint days before the internet, once you made it to your desk there wasn't much to do. Now you sit down and there's a universe of possibilities - many of them obscurely relevant to the work you should be getting on with - to tempt you. To think that I can be sitting here, trying to write something about the Swedish film director lngmar Bergman and, a moment later, on the merest whim, while I'm in Swedish mode, can be watching a clip from a Swedish documentary about the jazz musician Don Cherry - that is a miracle (albeit one with a very potent side-effect, namely that it's unlikely I'll ever have the patience to sit through an entire Bergman film again) Then there's another thing. From the age of 16. I got into the habit of compiling detailed indexes in the backs of books of poetry and drama So if there was a quote I needed for an assignment, I would spend hours going through my books, seeking it out. Now I just google keywords. GUSTAVO CURTIS. It's curious that some of the most vociferous critics of the internet - those who predict that it will produce generations of couch potatoes - are the very sorts of people who are benefiting most from this wonderful, liberating, organic extension of the human mind. They are academics, scientists, scholars and writers, who fear that the extraordinary technology they use every day is a danger to the unsophisticated They underestimate the capacity of the human mind to capture and capitalise on new ways of storing and transmitting information When I was at school I learned by heart great swathes of science textbooks What a waste of my neurons, all clogged up with knowledge and rules that I can now obtain with the click of a mouse. At its best, the internet is no threat to our minds It is another liberating extension of them, as significant as books, the abacus or the pocket calculator. MARCELO MILLS. The evidence that the internet has a deleterious effect on the brain is zero In fact, by looking at the way human beings gain knowledge in general, you would probably argue the opposite. The opportunity to have multiple sources of information or opinion at your fingertips, and to dip into these rather than trawl laboriously through a whole book, is highly conducive to the acquisition of knowledge It is being argued by some mat the information coming into the brain from the internet is the wrong kind of information It's too short, it doesn't have enough depth, so there is a qualitative loss. It's an interesting point, but the only way you could argue it is to say that people are misusing the internet It's a bit like saying to someone who's never seen a car before and has no idea what it is: "Why don't you take it for a drive and you'll find out?" If you seek information on the internet like that, there's a good chance you'll have a crash. But that's because your experience has yet to grasp what a car is.

Which person gives each of these opinions
about the Internet?

1.

Reservations about the benefits of universal access to it are unfounded.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

2.

It excels in its ability to disseminate facts.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

3.

Its power to sidetrack us can be both positive and negative.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

4.

It assists learning by exposing people to a wider range of ideas than was previously possible.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

5.

Much of the material on it is not original.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

6.

It enables us to follow up on ideas that suddenly occur to us.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

7.

It is only with time and practice that we can make best use of the internet.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

8.

The quality of material on it is questionable.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

9.

It still requires people to process the written word.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS

10.

It has reduced the need to memorise information.

— MARINA GORDON DANIEL LEZAMA GUSTAVO CURTIS MARCELO MILLS