Well said dear Mahfuz, it seems that  we are growing dependant on the internet. This was very limited in the past years.

Yes, to a certain limit, we are we growing dependant on the Internet for scientific research and exchange of knowledge in terms of science.

Twenty years ago, we were travelling a long distance to get a piece of information from a library. Now obtaining information is much easier than before.

Well said dear Mahfuz, it seems that  we are growing dependant on the internet. This was very limited in the past years.

Fortunately we are. In the past we had to devote lots of time to find the answers to our questions. If one said that someone made an important statement we had to wathc tons of videos, read lots of papers for a certain probable period of time until we found it. Today we just need to write the name of the author and a few more words, we have the information at hand. I think that interner freed me from the bondage of the past.

if we rely entirely on Internet, we have gained time, as many opinions, easily find the original ... but beware Internet is not all quality and we have to learn to look in a different way than we did 20 years.

I should like to welcome two librarians to the contents of this issue.

Yes, Luz and Mauro.

I agree with you both. And the fact that conventional libraries will never stop, is the living proof of their important contribute to modern Science. 

I still depend a lot on great librarians, for their valuable help in bibliographical research. You can direct our attention to quality .

I would say that I depend on the net for primary research, but also and very much , still, for the valuable contribution of some great librarians.

Thank you!

Yes, we may say that we are internet dependent researchers! Research Gate is an example for! Dissemination of knowledge is so high and fast with internet! Open Access publishing...!

http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/dec/09/open-access-direction-scholarly-publishing

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/aug/22/university-research-publish-open-access-journal

Great links! Thank you, Ljubomir !

Thank God for the internet, and for free acces to Knowledge, which, as much as I know , was on the basis of the Internet philosophy, but is gradually disapearing..

Generally speaking, Yes. Google and other search engines have changed the way we use the Internet for research, literature review, access to vast resources,  ... So we can speed up these processes, quickly learn/be aware of new findings or subject areas. Online submission of manuscript and online reviewing are also great advantage to us.   But our dependence on the internet has a dark side too;  we depend too much on technology, social media addiction, ethical issues, copy right issues, cheating, spending too much time online, ....  There is obviously a need for balance!

Dear friends,

When we knew that a certain person had said something about an issue which interests us we had to read lots of things published in a period of time. That is, papers from 1901 to 1908. So we used to read tons of material in order to find one statement. When we just went through it rapidly we ran the risk to go over what we wanted and not notice it. Today we put the name of the author and three words of his statement and we are likely going to find it in a blink of eye. Concerning the quality of the message, it is just as it happened in hard copies. If someone published the cure of cancer with a mix of herbs and supports his thesis with a "study", that was carried out somewhere in a country, sometime ago, just ignore it. It does not matter if it is in print or Internet.

I have been very dependent on internet.  Without Internet, I cannot get in touch with authors and with RG friends.  That's why I make it a point to thank them all when I manage to publish a paper.  It's giving thanks and gratitude where it's due.  To neglect to do so will be ungrateful!  Be thankful for Internet and online friends!

Who is able to cheat because of the facilities Internet offers, is able to cheat elsewhere.

You are right, dear Willemar.

A certain visibility, would allow cheating and plagiarism. 

But I also believe that when this visibility increases, then plagiarism will inevitably get caught on its own network...

I even would say that, nowadays, it would be easier to plagiate on old books, since more and more bibliographic research is done on the internet, and old rarities, may be difficult to find.

For myself, I have slowly become addicted to old rare medical books, that I collect and read from, as usual as I can, and these are quite helpful to build ideas, on modern research. (Of course, I am an Anatomist !  - But nevertheless, I tend to think that original ideas from the 16th and 17th centuries, could proove useful for modern thinkers. Much has been forgotten, and old arguments are sometimes, still modern. or «immortal»)

PS - Thank you, dear Miranda ! I/We are grateful and proud to be your internet friends !

When the individual brain was used for research it was limited to the Researcher's capability ; Collective support of the network and resources accessible to the Researcher. I still remember when I was in my final year of engineering to carryout my project in 1987, I had to literally run from library to library spread over various institutions and Research organizations. Those were tedious, time consuming and expensive for the minimal returns obtained. Today, Internet is really a boon for research.

Dear Maria,

Some key findings in a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project titled, “The Internet Goes to College” [link is attached]:

79% of college Internet users say the Internet has had a positive impact on their college academic experience.

73% use the Internet more than the library for research.

72% check their email every day.

60% think the Internet has improved their relationships with classmates.

56% believe that email has enhanced their relationship with professors.

46% say email enables them to express ideas to a professor that they would not have expressed in class.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2002/09/15/college-students-say-the-internet-helps-them/

Research Using the Internet: The dark side

• Anything goes on the Internet,
• Anyone can put anything s/he wants on a Web site.
• There is no review or screening process.
• There are no agreed-upon standard ways of identifying subjects and creating cross-references.

Conclusion: You must be very careful when doing research using the Internet:.

According to recent research, 77% of Americans would be willing to give up chocolate in order to maintain access to the internet. It 's a key issue: the internet is not only a tool for cultural personal and social growth, but also a formidable element of economic development. For this it is important to start reflecting that leads us to ensure that the web is considered a real universal right.

Maria, I apologize for having a little truncated by the main theme of the question, but i think that a basic consideration was needed.

PS I should like to remember you the my name is Enzo and not Sir. 

Yes we are dependend on the Internet, but it's still only a tool. If you want to find a book or article in a library you have to use the internet and search in its catalogue. You can find more and more scholarly articles and books online. But in the end you still have to go to the archives and more important you have to travel to get in contact with colleagues all over the world. You can't substitute socializing and networking at a conference with social media and skype.

I would never give up chocolate, dear Enzo!!! (please don't take that sweet pleasure of my life! )

Dear Claus, yes, I agree. Nothing would substitute person to person contact. Unfortunately, the Economy continues to rule the modern world. 

But despite of the economy, I will not give up chocolate, nor the internet, not even the pleasurable moments of holding old papers in my hands, as I read.

On the wall of the study of the Library of Congress, you can read a famous quote from president Jefferson: «I cannot live without books» (I have that quote on my coffe mug) . Maybe they should add that «Maria cannot live without books AND chocolate!»)

Thank you, Mahmoud, for an interesting link. (I promise to be careful, in particular because I am afraid They  might take chocolate away ...)

Thank you for your marvelous answers to this question.

Kind regards to you all! M.

Maria, I was a lot like you, checking the library every week for the newest journal issues, taking notes on articles as I found them. In fact, I started saving the citation information, abstracts, and my comments in the bibliography software, Reference Manager, years ago, accumulating more than 36,000 entries. The advantage over the internet to looking at the print journal was often readily apparent to me over the past 30 years or so. That was when I stumbled across a great article just by flipping through the pages on the way to another article. That article often had a title that would never catch my interest before, nor an author I had heard about. So just looking through the Table of contents on the internet never allows me to discover many articles in the old way. Reading the abstract often doesn't help much. Only a few journals push the authors to write the abstract well. Many make claims in the abstract that the article never presents data to support.

That's it, Martha!

A good journal manages to bear the weight of several articles with the same subject. Nothing compares to handling the real thing.

Nevertheless, Pubmed research is so useful, for a quick start around a specific subject.

We are growing more dependent on the Internet for scientific research and exchange of knowledge in terms of science. This is good. We should work to make it better.

The old method of searching brick and mortar libraries was time consuming and often lead to dead ends. It was difficult to ensure that parallel work in another discipline was not missed. The cost of journals and the increase in the number of journals severely limits libraries. The dictum of publish or perish has increased the number of articles and diluted the content.

The internet has provided us with an extensive library that is quickly accessed and quickly perused. The cost has not gone down as so many publications are pay-walled. The number of publications of little substance might have increased because of electronic publishing. Journals can publish more articles for less money and demand the same price.

We have lost nothing so far, because we have gained better search methods and accessibility. We will lose if we let the journal system continue to control and administrations to demand that publication number equals merit. We will lose if we continue the same peer-review system.

We already do all the work by writing papers, editing, and peer reviewing. It is time we controlled the process by open publication. We could post for review and editing, then post a final. All 'final' publications are subject to reissue after additional work. Reissues can be date stamped and include changes from the original. Reissue is a new publication for those interested in numbers of publications. All reviews are part of the record and, in some cases, may be considered collaboration.

There are details to be worked out, but could be a good way to do science.

Thank you, Joseph! Great comment, as usual. 

There is no «applause» button on RG, but I wish I could press that button, from times to times . Great reading. Thanks!

Science presumes that the things and events in the universe occur in consistent patterns that are comprehensible through careful, systematic study. Scientists believe that through the use of the intellect, and with the aid of instruments that extend the senses, people can discover patterns in all of nature.

Joseph you are so right about missing critical articles when we depended upon brick & mortar libraries. The internet at least allows us to check to see if others had published on a subject in other countries than our own and in more obscure journals. It also allows access to many articles that many people would have had to take several days off to get to a library which carried them. Interlibrary loan was not as easy, nor free at many universities. And, of course, most public university libraries were at the whim of state legislatures who could choose to cut their budgets at any time. Google Scholar often gives access to some publications when the reader cannot be at a university that buys that publication.

The internet also gives scholars ready access to each other so that a real discussion can occur in private, for free, via email and Skype, when before it would be so difficult to  find a time to talk that was mutually available. So I truly doubt that anyone would want to go back to those times despite the fact that we could hold the periodical in our hands, flipping pages and stopping suddenly when an image grabs our attention to an article with a barely comprehensible title.

However, as we have seen, there is a lot more cheating occurring, with authors reviewing their own submissions for publication, and other forms of cheating, that would have been more difficult before the internet and email. Almost every major journal publisher has been the victim of this activity. The "publish or perish" mandate can be targeted as the cause, but one can also take aim at the incredibly shrinking budget for research, making many do desperate things to keep their jobs.

When you realize that most PhDs will never be able to get permanent jobs that use PhD skills (about 92% in the sciences), it makes the pressure completely ridiculous. Worse, many of those tenured professors haven't a clue about this problem with their grad students and post-docs. Why? because the latter drop out of their profession when they realize that if they want to raise a family, another post-doc job will not work, but the professor has to keep getting more students just to do the lab work he/she cannot do because they have to keep applying for grants. Worse, I have seen the same position advertised at a salary $2000 less than what it offered 10 years ago.

The economic model that worked in the past doesn't work now, but too few in academia realize it. One of the reasons for this ignorance lies in the fact that surveys asking for input from PhDs rely upon universities, professional labs, and professional societies for input from PhDs (clearly leaving out those who can't get those jobs). Most unemployed PhDs will probably not keep up with the expensive membership fees, and are certainly not going to be found at most sources for these surveys. The latest information we have shows us that academic jobs are just not available. More than 2/3 of all professors teaching at universities are in adjunct, non-permanent, non-tenure-track positions. Most courses taught at universities are taught by the latter. Most industrial jobs are in just a few areas of science, and more of them require only a Master's degree.

At least in the US, we have produced a great number of college-educated people who want to go on to do research at the PhD level, and we have created a professoriate that needs these students even more now, but we haven't created the jobs needed to employ them afterwards. The internet allows them to keep up with their field if they choose to, on their own, unpaid time.

dear Martha!

Thank U !

Martha you have changed the question in an important way. Much of the problems are the result of the government being the sole funder of research (private funding has many governmental constraints and seek grants). Universities and national laboratories are administratively top heavy and are major costs to funding. This affects publishing, requiring publication from legitimate (sponsored) sources.

Open, openly refereed publishing could break the cycle.

Yes, you are both right.

But the core of the question remains there.

If the internet dies, how will we revise our modern way of performing bibliographical research. Will we cope going back? Have we, in the meantime learnt new ways of reasoning in terms of scientific bibliography? In fact, as was reported earlier, even librarians have modernized their approach to bibliography, with computing methods. 

Pubmed codes lead me to the exact room and shelf of the Library of Congress. 

The core of the question remains. And I thank you both for some important remarks on this issue.

There is no going back. If the internet dies, it will be because it was replaced by something better.

@ Joseph

Agree, that there will be more technological up gradation and newer innovations replacing the existing facilities.

Possible scenario if internet dies follows!  What happens in the first day, the first week, the first month, and after all hope is lost? First week, first month, long term...? Fine reading! 

http://blog.laptopmag.com/world-without-a-web-what-will-happen-if-the-internet-dies

It's a good thing that Internet death isn't very likely to occur!  Prof, thanks for a great link!

'...the five tenets of civilization—a belief system, faith system, lifestyle, modes of communication, and how we treat one another—would collapse under the stress of having to revert to an era that too many digital natives never knew. Wacker suspects the U.S. doesn’t have the tools to respond to a crisis, sans Internet. 

Lucky for us, then, that a long-term loss of the Internet, even by accident, is unlikely.'

In my opinion, as in all things are good and bad sides. Internet pendant exchange rate and scope. However, more and more difficult to comprehend and organize such a large amount of information. A lot of information is low scientific value. In my country, the city and many of the older professors do not use and do not want to use computers and the Internet. And more and more content can be earned only through the Internet. Reviews from research grants, sending work to magazines in most cases can be done only through the Internet in Poland. Perhaps in other countries are similar.

«Men will speak with each other from the most remote countries, and reply »

Leonardo da Vinci - Prophecies (Of writing letters from one Country to another)

That is really an appreciable foresight of Leonardo da Vinci 

Many other prophecies from this Man turned out to be right, in the end, even if kept in secret for many centuries...

His scientific visions are of course, better known than the visionary futuristic side of his character. The more I read , from him, the more I admire his works.

(Nevertheless, much of his real thinking may remain unrevealed, and much of what is attribute to him may still be the fruit of imagination of his later followers...We'll never know for sure!)

Internet has reduced the  requirement of Libraries, it is available 24x7, cheap and easy access.  This is a boon with quick search and easy facilitation options compared with student in early 1980s and before.

Yes, dear Krishnan. 

Quite true. 

I'm a "student from 1980s and before". So please grant me the right of the pleasure to touch, and to smell and to feel the soft pages of a book, or even better, of an old parchment, such as those I love and collect .

Nothing compares to a great book.

Nevertheless, I do agree that the internet brought uncomparable advance and facilitation of our research and of quick comprehensibve bibliografic research.

I think we should keep both. As a healthy complement.

I am responsable for the education of two adolescents and two small children. I have the tendency to offer them real books, and then promote their natural tendency for the virtual aspects of modern life. They are educated with the tendency to complement actual reality with virtual reality. 

Nothing substitutes a great bike ride across natural landscapes. (even if they carry mobile phones and tablets in their pockets)

Yes, dear Sana. 

But please don't be afraid. If you read the answers, further back, you'll realise unanimity that the Internet won't stop, unless to be substituted by better tools. The World is ours, to share and to evolve.

I believe in a better future. (but I won't forget how to handwrite, just in case... - and I try not to forget how to calculate square roots, by hand, either!)

Internet of things! How regional networks may replace the World Wide Web? Here are some readings for @Sana and friends! MUST read!

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/the-end-of-the-internet/372301/

http://qz.com/156075/internet-of-things-will-replace-the-web/

Wow ! Thank you Ljubomir! ...stunning!

Anyway, If you think of the evolution of music, from vinyl records to cd, mp3, etc... you will also notice that there's a strange return to vinyl ... A sort of quick nostalgia for the old times sound, going on again.

But I wouldn't go back to DOS times. I wouldn't cope having to insert 14 2.4Mb diskettes to get the word processor to work... (enough is enough!)

Dear @Maria, as far as I do remember, for PC use, we had 1,44 MB and 1, 2 MB! Am I right?

ups ! sorry, sir. Indeed right ! I knew it was something, point 4 ... haha !

Never got that right. But I do remember...

(I made my best to check. this is for you. - I wonder what our grandchildren will think of these...-)

The more dependent on technologies, in particular Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), increases the vulnerability of modern societies to technology failures as well as to malicious tampering. The may become disruptive and damage or tamper technologies, can be a weak signal for social collapse due to the failure - caused intentionally or otherwise.

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=124&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjADOHg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.iknowfutures.eu%2Fnews%2Fwiwe.php%3Fversion_id%3D910&ei=As8YVbH2K4q3uASZ3oHIDg&usg=AFQjCNFtRV4iAQQ8OijM4q1bvO9Xw3ZYtw

Thank you, dear Krishnan. That was exactly my fear when I posted this question.

In terms of Medicine and Medical records, the exposure to hacker threats also brings new ethical issues.

Nevertheless, we have accomplished much in terms of speed and quality of work. And it is very difficult to perform acurate updated bibliographic research without internet access.

Adding to speed, quality and cheap search, it allows knowledge theft, but inevitable.

That is the inherent problem these days with internet. Knowledge when not exposed does not benefit anyone but when exposed does not benefit the person who exposed (delivered) it. However these days more than knowledge, the skills (application of knowledge) is valued high. Internet now facilitates more experimentation's based on published knowledge contents. 

there's no use in «knowledge theft». 

I believe that knowledge is to be shared, freely...

Our human minds should act as transporters, transmitters, in terms of scientific knowledge. 

I don't consider myself as owner of ideas. (particularly, because quite often, I am wrong...) ( ! )

Authorship should stick to conclusions, and even those are to be transmitted and shared, for advancement.

For a better world.

(Dear Krishnan, if everybody thought like me, this would end «knowledge theft»)

Dear Maria, I think this is my first post today, and it's 9.48 pm, local time.  I just checked and put some finishing touches on a paper that I'm writing with one other dear RG friend.  Am I dependent on internet?  I just checked how to label my figures, from Purdue Owl.  And I just checked of Callibri can be considered a sans serif font, or do I have to re-do my figures all over again using Arial or Helvetica?  Thank God for internet, that is so very reliable and helpful for our research!

I also had a great experience exchanging scientific data, first here through RG, and then through messaging with a colleague from Russia, which ended in preparing a conference in co-authorship, for next June in France. We will (strangely ) meet in person for the first time, in June, and I'm thrilled. (In fact, I suspect that we had already crossed our paths, in other conferences, and had never talked. I'm thrilled with this unusual scientific experience, and I am also very thankful for the internet. We performed work in less than one month.If this was by conventional post mail, it would have taken at least one year .

I'm also thankful for the Internet, dear Miranda !

My late grandfather was a highly cultured and interested mind. He spoke and wrote several languages and kept postal correspondence with highly interesting individualities from all over the World, in the first half of the 20thg c., even in Mandarin. My father has kept some of his handwritten drafts and the responses he got. It is a living proof of my grandfather's amazing intelect.

None such memory will be kept from me to my children, as I use the highly deletable virtual internet for contacts and exchange of ideas. (and I will certainly not keep printed copies....

It is a different form of cultural interchange.

But I find that idea of the virtual perenity, quite thrilling, too.

My dear @Maria, you do speak about "digital memories" They are deletable, but science take care about. This article is for You : Digital Memories in an Era of Ubiquitous Computing and Abundant Storage. "However, while ubiquitous computing and abundant storage enable digital memories, difficult technological, legal, and social issues remain to be solved. It is clear much thoughtful research needs to be carried out in nearly every related area, including: privacy, security, user interfaces, content analysis, data mining, and summarization. We look forward to broad and active research into digital memories." This is Microsoft research.

Thank you, dear Ljubomir !!!

Thank you indeed. Quite interesting.

I have often wondered whether there wouldn't have been an old civilization before ours, that may have left a legacy of some kind of nonbinary digital memories that we still don't recognize, and fail to learn from them...because we may still be iliterate to. (just think of what would happen if you gave a DVD or a pen to a chimp...)

Good friend Jamal Hosseini just sent me an interesting aproach to this issue, through private message.

I take the liberty to share his contribute:

Jamal F Hosseini to you2 minutes ago

The advanced technology has given an opportunity to reach new scientific research more rapidly. But we should take this concern that we would not allow the technological dependency to control our ability, or the issue of determinism should not affect us.

Thank you, dear Jamal.

Dear Maria! It depends on the individual circumstances, and many others. Internet helps with the search for specific information. Internet helps in the rapid exchange of views with colleagues. Internet helps find alternative point of view. Internet helps to quickly obtain information about new hypotheses, theories, methods. All this is wonderful. But what is bad? Human gets used to the flow of information that is born of another mind. Often it is not necessary to think. There was a question and get the answer on the Internet. The consequence of this will be inevitable degradation of certain areas of the brain. And by the way, is already noticeable in many zombie Internet users. People are passionate about the Internet, which replaces nature walks, exercise. The man forced posture slightly bent. This posture has been the ancestors of the person while walking. Inevitably develops weakness, passion for solitude.

I have briefly sketched the entry response. You have formulated a wonderful question. Continue my answer may every person who agrees with this view. We must remember the call of the philosopher Rousseau's "Back to Nature". Recall and reasonably relate to innovations (Internet) and the identity of each individual.

Thank you, dear Vladimir for such valuable contribute.

I have been observing my young 9 year-old boy's atitude towards computing and the net. He seems to have been born with the natural ability to deal with informatics, as many in his new generation... I was astonished to see him grab the computer mouse at the age of 3 months old, and surf the net, on my lap, as if it were natural to do so...

Nevertheless, we have struggled to give him the habit of paperback-reading, every night. And he naturally developped the good habit of respecting books and handwritten papers.  He has demonstrated me that both worlds can work together, as useful complements, and  Ifind this a healthy habit.

It's good to have junior companions that show us that the World can work in different positive ways. 

Thank you Maria for an explanation of your feelings. I'm in my office listening to a concert opus 21 by Frederic Chopin. Playing Maria Pires. Again, the computer, but the feeling of the music in the infinite space.

Thank you, dear George. Yes you are right. The main benefit I take, from the net and informatics is the quickest and cleanest way to write and communicate. Nowadays, I find it even easier to Think, when I 'm in front of my keyboard. 

Even for hard decision making,  Ihave built an easy to fill table, with columns of pros and cons, and  I use a mathematical formula to get my final decision as a result. I think much better in front of my keyboard.

Dear Vladimir, thank you for your extraordinary interest on my aunt's performances. Its good to know that her music travels far. I personnally prefer her Schumann. 

I cannot resist offering you onerof her strangest public performances... (that fatal concert for which she prepared a different partiture, and had to improvise, from memory to get going - amazing ! -)

https://youtu.be/CJXnYMl_SuA

(Amazing, and true. I was with her the week after this happened and I thought she was inventing the whole story to entertain our family reunion. Then I saw this on the ~internet. I also work with my memory, as I teach Anatomy, with sometimes more than one hundred latin terms per hour of teaching, but I don´t get even close to my aunt's memory, which is absolutely outstanding...)

Internet is an extraordinary tool of acquisition, storage and sharing information and knowledge. researchers are becoming dependent on the internet because they strive to create and share knowledge as quickly as possible. The only drawback of this famous technological change is the risk of weakening of human relationships and the easiness to not respecting ethical values (Plagiarism, conflict, ...).

The answer is definitely yes. I posted a similar question a few months back, and you can see it from the answers elicited.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_you_imagine_conducting_academics_without_the_aid_of_Google

Are we growing dependent on the Internet for scientific research and exchange of knowledge in terms of science?

Yes we are,  Reason being this mode offers more research effectiveness vs previously manual / pre-Internet era which was more laborious, costly, time consuming & lesser accuracy.

Have we lost? Have we gained?

We gained some e.g. research effectiveness as mentioned above.  Think the proliferation of Internet usage also prompted some people copy & paste from Internet / plagiarize other works more easily.  At the same, with Internet capability to search anything in the twinkling of an eye - this is testing our self-control to stay focus on our scientific research so that not being easily distracted.

What if the internet stopped? 

We need to have business continuity / disaster recovery plans rolled out, implemented and continuously testing the plans so that we know what to do when Internet is down or no longer available for access.

Should we revise the way the modern human mind works, in terms of Science?

Think Internet & its related technologies had transformed the way scientists / researchers are working in which we can treat all these technologies as black box / tools that generate the information that we need for better decision making or next steps of actions.  Dong this can free us to have more time to focus on our scientific research that is still highly depending on our cognition capabilities beside technologies.

Dear Maria. Thank you for an amazing film about the immediacy of the great Maria Pires in the performance of Mozart. The greatness of Human is opened to the natural noble deeds of the individual. Thanks again for the story of Maria.

One word in the question attracted me the most, "change". Baby boomers and, probably, 'x-generation' concerns about these issues because they have witnessed the transformation from paper-based to computer-based learning. However, I guess this will not an interesting question for y-generation who didn't witness that transformation.

Dear Matthew Yu, it is inevitable, among 7 Million RGaters, that a few of us would post similar questions.

I thank you for your link, that surely brings new light to this old question, that I had proposed nearly a year ago, in December 2014. Your question was posted 8 months later... And I reposted this, because I thought that fresh answers might enrich the content of the thread. 

I was right, because so many more interesting contributes came to bring refreshing light. And I  am thankful to you all. I'm mostly interested in the interference of informatics and the internet in Science Education.

I thank you all.

Yes, Maria, it is necessary for many new RGaters people

Yes, in terms of science, the growing dependence on the Internet for research and exchange of scientific knowledge.

Yes I think so !! 

Yes I think so !! 

...aparently, Mac supports windows, now...

The internet becomes a excellent  and extraordinary   tool for researchers and for  evolution of the science and  technology .

Surprisingly yes!!! But internet has been a wonderful medium to share information. It is up to the user to purposefully use, not over use and attempt to reduce over dependence. Original form of quest is always important.

Dear Maria, magnificent allegory!  "Mac supports Windows". A perfect example of when a business "substitutes shoulder" other business. In fact, "substituted stretcher."

The most of scientific research nowadays are internet dependent in terms of tools, sharing and cooperation. 

Yes, internet dependent in terms of tools, sharing and cooperation. 

The Research Gate site is here to demonstrate that fact !

Internet technology is accessible, convenient, and easy to use

https://youtu.be/XZJ3fY-M1ws

Now obtaining information is much easier than before.

But we must be careful. The quality of this information may be much worse than it was in libraries. A person with less experience may well "get lost" - is not it?

Yes, dear Joseph. But information IS information.

Our scientific mind must be selective.

Many of the Internet contents are dedicated to the general public. Most of the books we pick from libraries are more specific, thus selectively oriented. 

We have to select and reject the «junk». We do that with mail too. Not only is real terms as also in informatic terms. (Do you think there's more «junk mail» in the email box, or in your home postal paper box?)

Hi there, it is my first time to write an opinion. I hope it is light

Internet is the best place to ask or get information especially in our countries. We cannot get books like researchers live in the US. In technical issues who can help better than forums. For example, look to your question I can read it and write my opinion while I am in the end of the earth. However,research is harder now than before. PhD was easy in 80s and 90s. No one knows what people are doing in other countries. Now we have to publish more and more and more...... It is complex to find a new work with a good contribution. Sometimes I feel frustrated of the equipments and tools researchers have in other places. Internet show us how weak we are comparing with others. I read once that "nescience is a bless" Sometime I feel it is true

Thank you, dear Mohammad. We welcome your effort to share ideas, here. 

I must admit that I share your feeling of poor internet resources. My computer is oldfashioned, my server falls down frequently. My country is poor /bankrupt.

But these problems add to the great treasure of being able to communicate with better equipped foreign international colleagues. And  I am richer every day, as I come here to share my views. (For my PhD research,  I travelled to the Library of Congress in Washington, -no such thing as not knowing what others wrote internationally! I had to «make-do», with what I had at the time... I also remember well, having to handwrite notes to authors, to mail by post for requests of full articles, or specialized help on my reading comments.!.)

Bless you !

The funniest thing, dear Manuel Alberto! Getting in touch with people like you, who much probably don't live too far away from my block... 

Would we have gotten in touch, were it not for the internet communication and share of ideas?

...

Dear Maria,

I don't think the internet will stop functioning any time soon, but I think you will get a better computer soon, even if the country is bankrupt.

We have better communications now and have learned a lot from people like you!  We depend on it because it is a better method for all.

I met a brilliant scientist recently who has not connected to the internet yet. I think he is ahead of many, just because he has more time to himself: he does not need to check his email every now and again, play games or waste time just surfing. So, even if we have internet, we only profit if we use it wisely.

I do envy that modern scientist, dear Michael !

My Dad is an 86 year old chemical engineer. He never owned any computer. But we do spend a lot of time, trying to keep him informed, receiving his mails through our own computers, typing answers for him, and even homebanking for him. (Modern luxuries of an old Grandfather...)

Roughly 2-3 decades before,  while reading hard copies journal, we are reading lot of other related stuffs and it'll help us to know much better about what is going on in other (related) areas of research. 

Now by searching key words, it'll help us to get much depth knowledge in the chosen area but makes us addict to internet.  Whatever little stuff, we are always looking in the internet - Internet acts like portable/external brain (without  thinking power). 

I just got this interesting contribute from good friend Michael.

I share:

Michael Ikehi to you 5 hours ago

yes. and there's a good reason for that. previous research articles had few citations because there was limited means of getting many/importation related literature. example;

an author in Africa working of personnel management in previous decades will rely heavily on the very few useful literature he could afford to buy or borrow from libraries and bookshops.

but today, as an author in Nigeria, Africa, i can source for related literature and findings of other authors from different continent. even now, we (you and i) could exchange ideas thanks to internet...

...however, strict reliance does have its dangers

I can't help smiling, in secret, when I notice in the RG profile of some of the Members here, as I read that some claim to be "independent researchers"...

My smile secretly tells me the question I always ask: "shouldn't we all BE Independent researchers"??? ((Independent from financial support? Independent from the heavy weight of institutional support? Independent from Internet harassment ???) Shouldn't we all be allowed to go free, free-willing free-thinkers? 

I sometimes wonder how the World would be if it grew differently...

I wonder.

As I share my "smiling" thoughts.

In the old days when there was no internet, people still managed to do research, so internet is not so indispensible for academics, however, modern computer science and the spread of internet connection do enchance scientific research to a great degree, and will be even more so in the future. 

I have observed young researchers who tackle ALL of their research using only the Internet. And, I correlate that kind of activity with the FACT that I read nowadays far too many articles that are re-inventions, rehashes, of the "wheel"! Research I read first in quality print science and engineering journals decades ago carried ideas (generalizations) and data (derived from laborious fieldwork or laboratory experimentation, sometimes at taxpayer indulgence) that are being duplicated (quite wastefully at some expense) by moderns. It is sad that young researchers are doing so much utterly wasted effort. And, it is shameful that those who pioneered do not receive the credit deserved. Cickety-click of keyboard keys versus page-turning...I prefer both, but I am also very happy that I know the "old stuff" approach!! I pity the young in this instance!

" As the eighteenth century thought itself the Age of Reason, and the nineteenth century thought itself the Age of Common Sense, the twentieth century cannot as yet even manage to think itself anything but the Age of Uncommon Sense. "

G.K. CHESTERTON. Ssint Thomas Aquinas. Garden City; Doubleday and Co., 1956.

The following group is identified to have a significant role:

• all public sources of information about scientific results and evidence (general media, Internet sites, family health literature, lifestyle advice, and advertising).

http://www.senseaboutscience.org/data/files/resources/17/peerReview.pdf

Excellent link, dear Krishnan, Thank you ! Quite useful !!!

Dear Maria:

Of course we are dependent! It is a bad thing to presuppose that everything important is on the net. That is false. We must still go to the library, consult people who know more than us, and —yes!— think by ourselves. :-)

Best regards, Lilliana