The Geek: may he rest in peace...

Net users are more sociable, more community minded, better educated, more trusting and more religious than their offline cousins, dispelling once (and hopefully for all) the notion that the web is populated by weird, geeky propellerheads.

According to research conducted by the University of Warwick, net users are also more likely to be wealthy than those who do not log-on regularly.

Thirty per cent of net users belong to a community group, compared to less than a quarter of non-users. Netizens are also 50 per cent more likely to be regular church goers.

Nearly two thirds of people earning over £32,000 a year are regular net users, compared with nine per cent of those taking home between £6,000 and £12,000.

Over 70 per cent of people with degrees use the web, but only one in 10 with no qualifications have got the online habit.

Professor Andrew Oswald, who led the survey, told the BBC: "This research should be very useful in overturning some common stereotypes. We discovered internet users are better citizens and more likely to be members of community groups and voluntary organisations.

"It appears the web is helping to strengthen the quality of British society. Internet users are the best citizens, not the worst," he added.

But the findings, which will be published in full later this week in the 18th British Social Attitudes report, did confirm one web stereotype: there are still more men than women in cyberspace, with 40 per cent of males using the web, compared to just 28 per cent of women.