Although there are some parallels between public intellectuals and internet intellectuals, there are also significant differences between them, and these should not be confused.

Generally speaking, intellectuals who are paying attention to public issues and public interests are considered to be public intellectuals. This has little to do with their academic fields or professions, but it does have a lot to do with basic ethics, public views, a sense of responsibility, and traditional culture. Public intellectuals need to find a channel for their voices, and they often resort to the internet, which is one of the few similarities between them and internet intellectuals. Public intellectuals, a major force in the politics of various countries, have always encountered huge challenges, pressures, and bribery. They survive hardship but have always existed, and many of their ideas and theories have endured through the ages. It is also often in the evolutionary trajectory of social science that public intellectuals can go from conducting studies on society to becoming the subjects of research themselves.

There are many internet intellectuals, and they mostly exist virtually in today's online world, but their quality varies. Almost all of them would be more often than not deviating from public issues and pay more attention to controversial ones to gain attention. Basically, they do not hold professional standard, nor do they admit their mistakes and biases, as these could all be affecting their online interests. In fact, without the internet, they cannot achieve success, as their accomplishment is closely tied to the advantages that the internet provides to them. To survive, they depend largely on advertising revenues generated online and they must meet the high requirements of view rates. Otherwise, they may be driven away from the internet platforms and replaced by new celebrities and new topics of interest. Therefore, internet intellectuals are actually just a group of highly interest-oriented groups whose focus is to occasionally talk about some public issues.

In France, one such public intellectual by the name of Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL) who in reality is an online celebrity is known for frequenting international hotspots. He became famous for his involvement in some major international issues. Once in Libya which was a hotspot in the world at the time, BHL claimed that he came for an assignment for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and that his travel and itinerary were approved by the Libyan Ministry of Interior. However, both claims were later proven to be untrue.

WSJ spokesperson Colleen Schwartz said that while BHL had repeatedly collaborated with them in the paper's opinion section, it had nothing to do with his trip to Libya. Libyan Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha was even harsher in dismissing BHL's claims. The Libyan official not only insisted that the Tripoli government had not approved the BHL's reportage trip but also suggested that the French philosopher's move was unnecessary and untimely. "Some parties are fishing in troubled waters to serve specific political agendas," he said.

In China too, there are many internet celebrity intellectuals. Some professional intellectuals, such as university professors, who devote themselves to the virtual world and scramble to become internet intellectuals, are eager to gain popularity and reap the benefits of online stardom. The emergence of this phenomenon has a certain relationship with the objective reality of China. On the one hand, the space for public opinion is limited, and there are not many things that can be said. On the other hand, some are drawn to the huge temptation of personal interests. With the internet traffic flow, some people can get rich overnight, and intellectuals are of no exception.

The world is changing, intellectuals are becoming more distinct, and in the future, there may be fewer public intellectuals. A small number of intellectuals do care about public issues that are genuine, practical, objective, rational, and highly connected to social risks. Our world does not reward this, and for that reason, it is now scarce to find public intellectuals, and they will become even scarcer in the future.