To tell the truth, I shuddered when I read this article. Why? Because correlation doesn’t determine dependency nor causality. Correlation can suggest a possible causal relationship, but great care must be exercised in the sampling, and in clear definitions.
For some reason, ACT became synonymous with intelligence to the people who published these findings. ACT scores indicate memory, and the ability to take tests…but not purely intelligence. While it’s true that intelligent people tend to score better on tests, good test scores don’t mean the tested person is more intelligent than one who didn’t score as well. Tests can be biased, smart people might not know how to take the test, might be ill or fatigued on the day of the test, etc. Also, the most critical factor wasn’t looked at: The availability of high speed internet vs. the need/ability to buy those speeds, and test scores. THAT might have been more revealing.
Anyway, the article is here: http://highspeedinternet.com/blog/technology/states-with-faster-internet-access-have-smarter-people
Even they admit that:
“A few states stray from the trend by being among the 10 fastest states, but in the bottom 20 in ACT scores.
- Michigan
- North Dakota
- Utah”
And:
“On the other end of the spectrum, some states are in the bottom 15 for Internet speeds, but still manage top-half ACT scores.
Maine is the biggest oddity here—ranking 37th for Internet speed, but fourth for average ACT score…Even with these select exceptions, the correlation is quite strong (0.57) and it’s even stronger – 0.61 – when you look at the ACT math section individually.
They then went on to check correlations between “the average ACT score for each state and two measures of a state’s wealth, median household income (HHI)* and gross domestic product per capita (GDP). We pulled this data set from the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis (2012).”
This, despite the ACT scores being from 2014.
“We found the correlation between a state’s GDP and its average ACT score is .41 and the correlation for HHI and average ACT score is .54. Remember the Internet speed correlation is .57. What does this mean?
A state’s average Internet speed is a better indicator of its average ACT score than its mean household income or its GDP.
The fact that the economic correlations are weaker than the Internet speed correlation shows that, although a state’s wealth may have some influence on both its Internet speed and its ACT scores, it is not the overriding factor causing the speed/ACT score relationship. Determining what the overriding factor actually is will require more research.”
From all this…what? That the Internet doesn’t dumb one down? That technology isn’t pernicious to human intelligence? To ACT sores?
What on earth are you talking about?!
I see some correlation of average Internet speeds and ACT scores…so what? Maybe if more specific work with locations and speeds had been done…maybe.