Next week, it will have officially been 25 years since the birth of the World Wide Web, an invention that has changed the world, but has it been for better or for worse? According to the results of a new Pew Research Center survey, a majority of Americans think the Internet has been good for society, while only a small few think otherwise.

As part of the polling organization’s Internet & American Life Project, the latest report discovered that more than three-quarters (76 percent) of respondents believe the web has been good for society, but 15 percent say it’s a “bad thing.” Another eight percent called the Internet “equally good and bad.”

On a personal level, 90 percent said the Internet has been good for them personally and only six percent stated that it was bad for them.

Why do a small amount of people say the Internet is a bad thing? Pew did not follow up on those responses, but previous research indicates that there are negative connotations related to the Internet: online bullying, loss of privacy, narcissism, the spreading of misinformation, a division between haves and have-nots and only like-minded people communicate. Another important aspect is that the Internet has led to a loss of human contact.

Roughly 25 percent of adults said they have been treated unkindly or had been attacked on the Internet. Another 25 percent say they have left online discussion groups because it became too intense or members were discourteous to one another.

“The Web at 25” report provided additional findings that have captured the attention of various news organizations. One notable finding was the fact that 87 percent of American adults are using the Internet this year, up from just 14 percent in 1995 and 46 percent in the year 2000. Also, Internet usage can be found higher in more affluent (99 percent), younger (97 percent) and educated households (97 percent).

The Internet has made such an important global impact that many adults find it extremely difficult giving it up. More than half (53 percent) of all adult Internet users say it would be “very hard” to give up the Internet, compared to a little more than one-third (34 percent) who say the same thing about television.

In fact, according to respondents’ answers, it would be much harder to give up the Internet than mobile phones (44 percent), email (34 percent), landline telephones (17 percent) and social media (10 percent).

“The rise of the Web is one of the biggest stories about the growing role of the internet in global life,” said Lee Rainie, director, of the Internet Project, in a statement. “Americans clearly think that networked technologies have brought clear personal and societal benefits. Even though there are lots of stories about bad actors and new challenges in online spaces, most report that the overall cyberworld they witness and experience is a pretty nice place.”

On Mar. 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote his first proposal for an “information management” system. The Web officially launched just two years later.