Americans are no strangers to using the Internet, but when it comes to their “Web IQ” it seems that majority have no idea on how things actually work.
A new questionnaire released by the Pew Research Center has measured the “Web IQ” of Americans.
The results of the survey were measured from September 12th to the 18th, 2014 and over 1,066 people participated.
While 83% of Americans could correctly identify a picture of Bill Gates, only 23% knew that the world wide web and the internet were not the same thing.
For the record, the Internet defines the architecture and protocols that allow computers to communicate with each other whereas the World Wide Web, is an application that uses the internet to give users access to web pages.
Not surprisingly, most questions about the engineering concepts behind the internet were not commonly known. Only 34% of applicants knew what Moore’s Law was- the rule that governs the number of transistors that can be put on a microchip.
Sixty-nine percent knew what URL stands for- Uniform Resource Locator and 74% knew which was bigger between a kilobyte and megabyte.
Another 82% knew that hashtags were used on Twitter and 60% knew that tweets are limited to 140 characters only. 61% also knew the definition of Net Neutrality.
The survey is part of an ongoing series by Pew to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web.
Curious how you fair? You can take the quiz here.