Given how ubiquitous smart devices are, one might think that, overall, people would have a pretty comprehensive knowledge of tech. That isn’t exactly the case. According to a recent Pew Research survey, 60 percent of the representative sample knew that tweets are limited to 140 characters, but only 42 percent knew that Harvard is where Facebook originated. And despite how much new iPhone announcements dominate the news cycle, only some 36 percent correctly picked 2007 as the year Apple unveiled its first smartphone. Even fewer were able to accurately identify the first “widely popular graphical web browser.” Hint: it wasn’t Netscape Navigator. As The Washington Post points out, a vast majority of people happen to think that “World Wide Web” and “internet” are interchangeable too.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger respondents and college graduates scored higher than older, non-degree-holders. All this is to say that while technology use itself has grown by leaps and bounds, knowledge of where it came from seemingly hasn’t followed the same trajectory. Want to to see how you stack up for yourself? That’s doable. In case you’re wondering how an Engadget editor fared, I got two questions wrong. And no, I’m not telling which ones.
[Image credit: Shutterstock / Andrey_Popov]
Filed under: Internet
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Via: The Washington Post
Source: Pew Research