I'll probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but here goes...
I think there may be some truth to this rumor. I do a lot of advertising on TrafficVance which is basically pop-up advertising on computers with adware. One thing I noticed regarding the traffic I received to my landing pages was that a disproportionately high number of my visitors were using Internet Explorer. The percentages were so disproportionate that some of the advertisers I was working with flagged it as "suspicious." (This was thankfully cleared up when I explained to them how I get my traffic.)
For whatever reason, it seems like more Internet Explorer users have adware on their computer than users of other browsers. To me this shows that users of other browsers are more technologically literate than IE users, as you wouldn't expect a technologically literate person to have adware on his/her computer.
Does technological literacy correlate with intelligence? I don't know, that's not really for me to say, but I don't think we should be so hasty to dispel this notion simply because a study was faked.
I'll probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but here goes...
Please don't bring this phrase to Hacker News. The only time to complain about downvotes is when you're sure you've been unjustly downvoted.
I think it's completely reasonable to expect alternate browser users to be more technologically literate than IE users though. Unless their alternate browser was installed by someone else, installing one is a choice that requires enough technical knowledge to find, install, and use another browser. I'd assume these people would be more knowledgeable than most about adware because it would make sense for those skills to be correlated.
On a completely unrelated note from this story, how do you justify supporting adware? I assume this is why you thought you'd be downvoted.
> Does technological literacy correlate with intelligence?
It really depends on what technology you mean.
I used to know a lot of graduate students in the biochem dept of my university. They were quite clearly very competent with technology that was important for them. But if you mean technology as in computing technology, then no. Most of them did not care much about them at all. And many (most?) used IE 6 as well.
Personally I wouldn't rate their intelligence as below normal just because they did not have an affinity towards technology that I happened to be enthusiastic about.
Comments
I'll probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but here goes...
I think there may be some truth to this rumor. I do a lot of advertising on TrafficVance which is basically pop-up advertising on computers with adware. One thing I noticed regarding the traffic I received to my landing pages was that a disproportionately high number of my visitors were using Internet Explorer. The percentages were so disproportionate that some of the advertisers I was working with flagged it as "suspicious." (This was thankfully cleared up when I explained to them how I get my traffic.)
For whatever reason, it seems like more Internet Explorer users have adware on their computer than users of other browsers. To me this shows that users of other browsers are more technologically literate than IE users, as you wouldn't expect a technologically literate person to have adware on his/her computer.
Does technological literacy correlate with intelligence? I don't know, that's not really for me to say, but I don't think we should be so hasty to dispel this notion simply because a study was faked.
I'll probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but here goes...
Please don't bring this phrase to Hacker News. The only time to complain about downvotes is when you're sure you've been unjustly downvoted.
I think it's completely reasonable to expect alternate browser users to be more technologically literate than IE users though. Unless their alternate browser was installed by someone else, installing one is a choice that requires enough technical knowledge to find, install, and use another browser. I'd assume these people would be more knowledgeable than most about adware because it would make sense for those skills to be correlated.
On a completely unrelated note from this story, how do you justify supporting adware? I assume this is why you thought you'd be downvoted.
I like money.
> Does technological literacy correlate with intelligence?
It really depends on what technology you mean.
I used to know a lot of graduate students in the biochem dept of my university. They were quite clearly very competent with technology that was important for them. But if you mean technology as in computing technology, then no. Most of them did not care much about them at all. And many (most?) used IE 6 as well.
Personally I wouldn't rate their intelligence as below normal just because they did not have an affinity towards technology that I happened to be enthusiastic about.