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Google is an American company commonly known as a Search engine founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., formerly termed as Google Inc. It is placed at the heart of most internet users’ experience worldwide because most people use it to make their search requests. It began as an online search firm, but it now offers different internet services and products such as Advertising, E-mail, online document creation, software and hardware, cloud computing, etc. (William L.Hosch and Mark Hall 2020). On the other hand, thinking is the cognitive activity used to process information. They involve problem-solving, decision making, and the creation of new ideas. (James Kelly 2015). According to Stephen Thomson (2016), there is an increased reliance on the internet, which transforms people’s thinking and memory. This is a trend referred to as “cognitive offloading” by researchers.
Before the internet came through, if someone asked another tricky question, one could rely on various options such as friends, encyclopedia, and library to carry out research. This was undoubtedly complicated and more time-consuming. Thanks to technology and the internet specifically, it made it easier to research because one could now Google it instead. People no longer rely on undependable memories for random facts and bits of information. It becomes effortless to search for something online rather than trying to remember particular things. Moreover, Google changes human thinking patterns; for instance, people tend to recall less on their own nevertheless can now turn towards the internet to get what they want. (Ed Oswald 2011).
Michael Merzenich, Professor of neuroscience, University of California, stated that:
“Your brain-every brain- is a work in progress. It is ‘plastic.’ From the day we’re born to the day we die, it continuously revises and remodels, improving or slowly declining as a function of how we use it.” The big data has thus assisted free up mental resources for other more essential errands, which technically could make us even smarter. (Stephanie Thomson 2016).
A professor of psychiatry at UCLA studying aging brain known as Garry Small carried out a study out of curiosity on what happens to the brain when someone searches online. He took 12 subjects, 12 who often used search engines and 12 who rarely used search engines. What Gary discovered amazed him, and he decided to publish what he found in a paper titled, “Your Brain on Google” in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry in 2009. He discovered that using a search engine improved action in the parts of the brain that deal with complex reasoning making decisions and vision. He similarly saw that the more- proficient users revealed twice as much brain activity as the new subjects. He, therefore, came towards the conclusion that “the more tendency to search makes the brain reaction towards information increases.” (Alexis Sobel Fitts 2017).
Sparrow, a Columbian University Researcher, argues on ‘whether the internet is making us stupid.’ In this regard, people are using Google and other search engines as a leeway to their brains. Specialists have termed it as Transactive memory on which someone remembers where to get the information itself. Google has made this process easier and faster. He further contends that people remember less by knowing information than by knowing where it can be found. (Ed Oswald 2011).
On the other hand, Nicholas Carr, in his book ‘What the internet is doing to our brains,’ is pessimistic. He discourages the reliance on the internet as an external hard drive memory makes people lose the capacity to transmit the details they read and hear daily from our operational memory to their permanent memory. This is described as “essential to the creation of knowledge and wisdom.” He adds that ‘when people go online, they enter an environment that promotes cursory thinking, hurried and distracted thinking and superficial learning.’
In another article, ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?'(2008), Nicholas Carr observed that the internet would have a far-reaching negative effect on our comprehension and contemplation capacity and thus hinder learning. He implied that Google was making us stupid. Val Hooper (1-2) argued that reading on the internet had various advantages such as enhanced user experience through media-rich content, efficiency, increased reading capacity, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and comprehension. It also presents disadvantages such as the negative impact on short and long term memory, lack of concentration, and lack of understanding.
People have been influenced strongly by limitless information found online. Thus the web is enriched with desirable knowledge, and search engines provide diverse information giving them what they want. Google remains not just an option for research; it’s a more predominant method that we acquire firsthand information, which alters our way of thinking. It is thus going to expand the capabilities of the human mind. Despite different researchers’ argument, no matter how this tool appears attractive, people must adopt it with an appreciation not just of its power but also of its limitations.
Works cited
Cukier, Kenneth, and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger. “The rise of big data: How it’s changing the way we think about the world.” Foreign Aff. 92 (2013): 28.
Fitts Sobel Alexis, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/google-changes-thinking_n_55dc8069e4b04ae497046fa6, ‘How Google is changing the way we think,’ Huffpost, January 04, 2017, Accessed on May 23, 2020
Hooper, Val, and Channa Herath. “Is Google Making Us Stupid? The impact of the Int internet on Reading Behaviour.” Bled eConference (2014): 1-2.
Hosch L. William and Mark Hall, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Google-Inc, ‘Google,’ Encyclopedia Britannica, inc., May 11, 2020, Accessed on May 23, 2020
Kelly James, https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/thinking/types-of-thinking-2/, ‘Types of Thinking,’ The Peak Performance center, July 2015 Accessed on May 23, 2020
Oswald Ed, https://www.pcworld.com/article/235757/researcher_google_is_changing_the_way_you_think.html, ‘Google is changing the way we think, Say, Researchers,’ PC World, July 14, 2011, Accessed on May 23, 2020
Thomson Stephanie https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/how-google-is-changing-our-brains/, ‘Scientists say Google is changing our brains,’ World Economic Forum, October 06, 2016, Accessed on May 23, 2020