Results of an online study with 895 respondents (both ordinary users and experts, businesspeople, writers, developers, consultants) show that three-quarters of respondents consider the internet a tool for boosting literacy and intelligence over the coming decade.

Per most respondents, the internet’s maximum effect on writing and population literacy will arrive by 2020. “75% of experts say our use of the internet develops human intellect and raises the general level of development, and two-thirds of respondents believe constant internet use will significantly improve writing, reading, and make acquiring knowledge easier,” said Janna Anderson, the study’s author and concurrently director of the Imagining Internet Center at Elon University, North Carolina.

As expected, the view that the internet is an engine of progress isn’t the only one. A fifth (21%) of users believe the internet will lower humanity’s average IQ. They see search engines and Wikipedia as the greatest threats.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, shares the view that search engines are a kind of extension to human memory. Google is a very important source of quick facts. The study showed that 42% of surveyed experts predict a decline in anonymous web activity by 2020. Identity systems are developing rapidly. But at the same time, 55% of participants are confident they have at least ten years of anonymity ahead.