According to a new Rasmussen poll, Americans are becoming
less enthused about the Internet’s influence on American culture, politics and
journalism.
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 31 percent say the Internet’s
impact on American culture overall has been good for the country, down from 37
percent in April. Twenty-nine percent think the Internet’s
impact on American culture has been bad for the nation, while 30 percent say neither. 

The poll comes on the heels of a survey released last month that found more than 50 percent of Internet users, suffering from social media
overload, have either taken or have considered taking a “vacation” from
social networking.

Irrelevant updates and a lack of time are the top reasons people
desire a break from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social
networks.
The study by MyLife.com found that
online users are becoming overwhelmed by the increasing number of social
networks and email accounts they manage.

The survey
of more than 2,000 adults ages 18 and older found more than 40 percent manage multiple social networking profiles, and
more than half belong to more social networks or visit their networks
more frequently than they did two years ago. 
At the same, a second
new Rasmussen poll found that 24 percent of Americans still buy a print copy of their local
paper daily or nearly every day.
That number has been steadily
falling for years, of course, but the survey found less confidence that online
and other news sources can fill the void left by vanishing traditional papers.
Fifty-eight percent of those polled,
when given the choice, prefer to read a printed version of a newspaper over the
online version, according to this national survey.
Twenty-nine percent prefer the online versions of papers, while 12 percent more
are undecided.