Search Engine Era Imperils Memory Capacities

Google’s oft heralded as a hero or a villain. Whichever way you choose to view the search engine, there’s no denying that it’s the marvel of our times.

Once, there was the age of the car. Then, it was the age of the television. And now, it’s the age of the Internet – and the search engine.

And, just as the car, and television, vastly impacted the American way of life, so does Google.

According to research conducted by an assistant professor at Columbia University, Google is actually impacting the way in which the human mind works: by effectively making us lazier. With such easy access to information, the brain is less inclined to wrinkle itself by remembering extraneous details.

Why bother, after all. Google is there.

According to Dr. Sparrow, "The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it."

Sparrow went on to add that, "The Internet has become a primary form of external or trans-active memory, where information is stored collectively outside of ourselves."

So, congratulations, human race: we’ve become glorified external hard drives. Sparrow’s study goes on to suggest that mankind is now as reliant upon the data they get from Google as they are on their own personal experiences.

And, while this ease of information at our fingertips might make us lazier in some respects, it doesn’t necessarily make us stupider. With less energy committed to the memorization process, the mind can be freed up to better appreciate abstract concepts.

Books and abaci never killed anyone, so the chance that Google-reliance will send humanity on a downward spiral is slim to none. It may change us – but it may also empower us.

The Internet is everywhere these days – we should know, because we specialize in international computer rentals. In business, at school, and at home, people are plugging in – and when they do, they’re plugging in to Google.

That might be a good or bad thing, depending on perspective.