Internet Explorer 6 has just become the new euphemism for calling people stupid. And it’s not just IE6, it’s pretty much anyone who uses Internet Explorer.
Of course, calling people stupid is not particularly PC these days, so one has to back up such name-calling with hardcore science. Thankfully for anyone predisposed to calling people names, we now have the data. According to a recent study conducted by Canadian company, AptiQuant, people who use IE 6 were found to have an IQ lower than 80 (on average). The study, titled “Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage” took into account the type of browser usage among 101,326 individuals over 16 years old. Chrome and Firefox users had an average IQ of 110, while Opera and Camino users had an average IQ of 120.
Naturally, many will see the results of this study as nothing but pseudo-scientific nonsense, after all, there are bound to be very intelligent people who use IE6. Such criticism however, would belie the almost universally accepted truth among web users: people who use IE6 are not very sharp. And it’s not just IE6; people who use Bing are also considered “slow”. That’s been the sentiment for years, with many advertisers caring to only target people using Google Adwords for the savvy of Google’s user base.
The results of the study will, I am sure, affect people in one extreme or the other, but what can’t be denied however, is the fact that some people are just not as smart as others. In the grand scheme of things it’s really not a big deal—some people are tall, some are short. We just now know that the no-so-smart people are Internet Explorer fans.
Perhaps the study was commissioned by Microsoft in an effort to get people to ditch IE6. What do you think? Watch the video below to see how IE6 tests against its modern versions.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVbppwcBZ6g
No comments:
Post a Comment