Has the internet made us smarter as a species?

The internet may provide an unparalleled level of access to information, alas much of that information is poorly delivered, easily corrupted (Wiki et al) or just plain wrong fantasy.

For instance the answer above suggests we are more knowledgeable because we can easily find the info we need and this presumably contributes to our smartness. However there is no correlation between ease of access to information and useful knowledge or smartness. Were I inclined to believe, I could very easily find positive reinforcing info on free energy (perpetual motion) or psychic wonders amongst many others. However these like a great many other claims are complete bunk and don't exist in the real world. Now there are also many sites that rationally debunk many claims but they are only useful if that's the info the seeker needs, which may not always or even often be the case. The ease at which misinformation - often demonstrating a stunning lack of understanding of the scientific method, or even basic science - can be accessed contributes to reinforcing peoples misconceptions and stunting their intelligence, it does not enrich their knowledge or increase their smarts. The whole mercury scare and ensuing anti-vaccine idiocy after Wakefield was and still is driven by mind numbing ignorance of science, and shrill appeals to emotion spread by a number of idiot organisations through the internet. The fact that there was as easily accessed info debunking this nonsense did not make it go away.

Then there is a suggestion that a lack of access would be deleterious to our smarts. To suggest that we would be less smart if the net was removed, is no more enlightening than suggesting the same drop in smarts were we to find all books taken away. Plus in reality it is our access to information and the work of others that would suffer, our intelligence would not just evaporate. We would lose exposure to information that could aid our intellectual development, but as I pointed out, no more a loss than losing access to books or even other people.

Finally the last two sentences just seem to be an unwarranted assertion. Information can be easily traded and spread quickly but I see no evidence that this or the net in general acts to make us all some super gestalt intelligence, given the plethora of ignorant dross that fills the net such a claim is quite categorically wrong as far as I can see. The internet is a globally accessible - though let us not forget that a great many still have no access hence no part of this "intelligence" - repository of information and nothing more. It makes no judgment and carries no indication of the value of its information content, it has no delineation between factual information and invention, no line between science and pseudo-scientific nonsense. Those values are determined by the user and if that user has not been or willfully is not equipped to make those determinations, then the copious level of erroneous information available will potentially pollute their intellectual development. As it clearly does over and over with evolution deniers, moon hoaxers, 9/11 truthers, holocaust deniers, alien abductions, free energy, biophotonic water, chem trails, an unending parade of psychic claimants, alien / gov conspiracies, dowsing, anti-vaxxers...

Information alone does not make you smart, it is how you approach it, interpret it and utilise it that is indicative of smarts.