Social Cognition in the Internet Age: Same As It Ever Was?

The World Wide Web has inarguably become an integral part of the daily lives of the majority of the world's population. Many people spend more time online than with any given person on any particular day, yet the cognitive impact of being online remains understudied in psychology. We examine the research that has been done, and relate other related research findings, in an effort to attract more research to this area. We analyze some of the key factors that may have an impact on what and how we learn online, whether we are interacting with the cloud mind interpreted by Google or with other people via text based communication. We investigate how this development changes our perception of reality and how we may evaluate online information in ways that differ from face-to-face encounters. Living our lives in cyberspace changes what kinds of information we most frequently process and how we habitually deploy our cognitive resources, for better and for worse. When people interact with the Internet they may adopt particular mind-sets, modulating basic psychological processes. We integrate disparate lines of research in an effort to provide avenues for future investigation.