Why writing Science in the internet is waste of time

It is not waste of time for scientists to engage the public by popularizing the science practised by them. But there is strong evidence that, at least in India, internet is not the medium to pursue such popularization. Earlier, I have argued otherwise - read here, here and here. But I wasn't aware of the statistically vindicated evidence, right here on the web. It doubly argues for my case - with its statistics and my neglect of it on the web.

Observe below, the two key survey results from the 2004 Indian Science Survey Report - pdf of full report available from Indian National Science Academy website. The survey sample-set includes all slices of Indian public - from urban to rural, educated to illiterate, dinkys to paupers. Even with a similar 2009 (or 2020) survey, I don't think the result would be very different from this.

Indian public doesn't have high confidence on the information they receive from the internet. They also don't think internet as their source for science and technology. That they view TV, radio and newspaper - in that order - as more reliable is the subject of a separate fruitless discussion.

Lack of reliable content on Science and Technology could be a valid reason for such outright rejection of the medium. But arguing about this only gets us into a vicious regressive cycle of non-reliability-so-no-good-content-so-non-reliability. Who should bell the cat? Everyone and no one.

Writing Science in the internet is not totally useless. If the target readers include fellow internet-savvy science enthusiasts, researchers, students and few others accessing specialized content.

But in India, science blogging - done for improving the science literacy of the public - is a waste of time. In India, sizable target readers don't show up on the web as yet.

Related posts:

1. Science, savvy?
2. Indian Scientists and Science Blogging
3. Chasing Cobwebs: how to play first time book authors – part 3
4. Bad Writing
5. What a waste of intellect and ink