The fact that I am working on the Internet for this project, using search engines such as Google, shows how large of a role digital technologies has on our lives. People are no longer willing to travel to the library, use dictionaries or read any research books for their work, because Google search has made finding information very easy. As a result, Google search has raised our expectations about how easy it should be to find information for learning and remembering. Google search is a web search engine that is owned by Google Inc, which allows people to look up what ever they want by typing in the search box. You are presented with a list of results that are coming from all over the world. Google search is the most used search engine on the World Wide Web, and it handles about three million searches per day. Google has also come out with a new search algorithm, it is a system used to sort through all the information it has when you search and it comes back with answers. Sullivan, Danny states on Search Engine Land, it is called the “hummingbird for it’s fast and precise” characteristics (Sullivan, Danny par. 3). Google Inc came out with this in 2013, the search algorithm basically is used “to sort through billions of web pages and other information it has, in order to return what it believes are the best answers” (Sullivan, Danny par. 2). Google search and similar technologies such as Binge and Yahoo Search are making people lethargic, which is telling our mind and body not to work as hard. Google has expanded in so many ways, such as Google maps, Google talk, and  Google Scholars, therefore many people feels a special comfort for this source.

Google search doesn’t make people stupid, because if we are using Google search as a source of information, we are gaining knowledge on the topic we researched. Therefore this is where the laziness comes in, our brains are now recognizing Google as something to rely on. The brain realizes it does not have to work as hard and it starts to count on search engines such as Google to feed it knowledge because it is always improving. Our brains are adapting to how Google has trained our minds over a period of time, not to remember information, but to remember where to find the information. Our memory systems are not as strong as it was before, knowing there is a computer right by our sides which holds everything we should be holding in our minds. I will discuss how the use of Google search inhibits us from remembering information and gaining knowledge, why others may think otherwise that it helps them to store information in their brain, and why we should not depend on Google in the future but strengthen our mind on our own.

As John Medina states in his book Brain Rules, “working memory is a collection of busy work spaces that allows us to temporarily retain newly acquired information. If we don’t repeat the information, it disappears” (Medina 159). People will feel like they don’t have to think too long on a topic or try to remember it by repeating it because, where is the internet going? Nowhere, it is actually getting better. In Brains Power vs Technology, by Sunshine CoastDaily (Queensland), Michael Nagel said “memory was highly selective and gave the example of an encounter with a barking dog. If you felt threatened by the dog, then that would be how you remembered the situation the next day: as a situation of danger. If not, you might remember it later as just being annoying” (qtd. in “Brains Power vs Technology” Sunshine CoastDaily par. 18).  If it is not an necessity to remember the situation, people do not think that they need to remember the information or repeat it because they just want to get it done and out of the way to move on to the next quest. A lot of the time people don’t think about the consequences on how it affects their memory. In addition to selective memory, Google search is making our brains become shallow over time, it also pulls us away from our close family and friends. At dinner tables, everyone is either on a tablet or starring deeply into a phone screen like they are programed to do so, and it would not feel normal if they had a conversation about each others day. Also our attention span has decreased tremendously, before I could get trapped into a book and read forever, now once I see a long passage I am disinterested quickly. All with the help of Google, everyone is moving fast paced, not wanting to slow it down and take time to cogitate on matters at hand.

Google reduces our intelligence and impairs our memory, in the non-fiction book, The Shallows, Nicholas Carr, discusses how digital technologies like Google search is affecting his brain. “Over the last few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuity, reprogramming the memory” (Carr 5). This is the same feeling my family and I have been experiencing. Our cognitive ability to store information in our minds, has been decreasing tremendously. Our brains are changing rapidly over a short period of time, and it seems that people are not paying attention to that change. Now people are making decisions based on their experience with the use of Google search as apart of their daily life. As an example Carr explains how he feels this when he is reading; “I used to find it easy to immerse myself in a book or a lengthy article” (Carr 5). This was before the growth of digital technology, “Now my concentration starts drift after a page or two” (Carr 5). Considering myself, I feel intense anxiety when I see multiple pages full of information that I have to read for a research project that I have been procrastinating about reading. Whether or not I will find it interesting, knowing that it would take forever to read. Before I was open to reading anything and gaining knowledge, because I knew how smart I would become while reading. Of course, I try to start reading but I automatically switch to thinking about what I want to eat or what I could buy, or what my friends are doing.

In Brains Power vs Technology, by Sunshine CoastDaily (Queensland) “A recent study conducted by psychologists at Columbia University determined that not only has technology changed the way we live our everyday lives, but also the way we think. The study concluded we were less likely to remember information if we knew where to find it” (“Brains Power vs Technology” Sunshine CoastDaily par. 6). We know that we can depend something so “fast and precise” like Google search and it is there when we need to dig into some knowledgable data. Also in Brains Power vs Technology, by Sunshine CoastDaily (Queensland) “University of Sunshine Coast School of Science and Education Associate Professor, Michael Nagel said that despite the study’s conclusion, researchers were still a long way off knowing the full impact of technology on memory, he said it was this factor that would determine if people remembered things rather than how they used Google for example, if we don’t think it is important for us to remember something as it can be easily accessed again, then our brain won’t remember it” (qtd. in “Brains Power vs Technology” Sunshine CoastDaily par. 10). Being that people have so much going on in their lives and so much thoughts going through their mind a day, they count on Google search to store information that they can not take on because their brain has gotten indolent. Just as Clive Thompson stated in The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, “offloading data onto silicon, we free our own gray matter for more germanely ‘human’ task like brainstorming and daydreaming” (qtd. in Carr 180). We would rather be thinking about something that we have an emotional connection to like our dreams or goals. In which we give the more “complex” matters to Google to do the hard work, we often seek wisdom on a digital screen, rather than have confidence and intelligence in our own minds.

Many people can’t even remember their first time using Google, for example my mother Joanne Bristol said, “I do not remember my first time using google, but it is very helpful looking up words and definitions, sometimes when you need to spell a simple word that you should know from first grade, you just ask Google and it pops up before you even finish spelling it out and it also gives you the definition, if I was to take a big spelling bee right now, I would fail. I also use google maps every time I have to go somewhere and they tell me word for word where I have to go and before we needed to use actual paper maps” (Bristol par. 4). Hearing my mother talk about how she will fail a spelling test concerns me for the next generation. People are wanting to achieve a facile living, and expect Google to make their lives simple. Google is making us not want to work hard, think and accumulate information in our brain, so this will influence us to not want to put our minds to the challenge. In The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, Kobi Rosenblum who heads the Department of Neurobiology and Ethology at the University of Haifa in Israel states “While an artificial brain absorbs information and immediately saves it in it’s memory, the human brain continues to process information long after it is received, and the quality of memories depends on how the information was processed” (qtd. in Carr 191). He articulates that digital technologies such Google search will consume information but that all it does, there is no insight on whether the material is legit or not.  People will automatically trust what is on Google, but with long term memory we are able to ponder on the information and gain knowledge which pushes us to be more confident in our thoughts. Nicholas Carr then states “Biological memory is alive. Computer memory is not” (Carr 191). We are able to speculate on our thoughts, expanding on what we know, technology can not do this, which restricts it’s information from growing.

Although it is shown that Google search can impede our memory and restrict many from learning, others will agree that the use of Google search can promote learning and augment our memory. According to Internet Live Stats, “Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide” (Internet Live Stats par. 1). The search doesn’t stop, and it serves people all over the world with information. These numbers numbers show how important Google is, many people trust what is on Internet and they go to Google for the answers. According to my cousin Kayla St.louis, “I believe that Google search enhances our learning because whatever you don’t know, you could just ask Google, I remember I started using Google in High School. I would research my topic on Google and go back to my teacher and she’ll say the information is correct, thats when I started to rely on Google” (St.louis par. 2). Students gain a lot of information from just researching a project which influences them to begin searching almost everything they encounter. Even if they already researched it in the past, to them it is a place to store what ever they need to know.

The children in the upcoming generation will only know how to use digital technology, According to The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr someone who approves of this is Peter Suderman, who writes for the American Scene, argues that with our more or less permanent connections to the Internet “it’s no longer terribly efficient to use our brains to store information” (qtd. in Carr 181). He believes that memory should point us to places on the web, where we could find the information and it is useless to try and remember material in our head. Also Carr tells readers that Don Tapscott, who is a technology writer says “now that we can look up anything ‘with a click on Google, memorizing long passages or historical fact’ is obsolete and memorization is a waste of time” (qtd, in Carr 181). Basically these two writers have plenty of things going on in their lives and the last thing they need to do is try to store loads of material in their brain. Since digital technology is growing tremendously, becoming flexible, and responsive, people are relying on it more. Griffiths, Thomas L, believes that we should indicate how to “obtain novel models of human memory” (Griffiths, Thomas L 1075). He has done plenty of research like testing people on whether he can predict human performance on a fluency task using PageRank, which is of apart Google search engine. He explains that “Establishing this correspondence is important not just for the hypotheses about human cognition that may result, but as a path toward developing better search engines” (Griffiths, Thomas L 1075). Griffiths believe their is a bright future for Google search and it’s algorithm, by making it better with a number of test. He also believes that human memory research will be able extend the capacities of search engines, hence developing them into something better. The Internet’s search engine such as Google is now apart of our lives, but it is only that friend that we only go to when we need something.

Many don’t realize how using Google Search is altering how we think. The human brain can no longer store loads of knowledge, but instead knows where to find the data. Children in the upcoming generation are looking up to the older people and following what they do. Once they see how much we rely on the Internet for answers, they will do the same. They will soon start to look up to Google for all their injuries instead of going to their parents and talking about it, eventually pulling their relationship apart. Also since Google is advancing with it’s new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm, people are likely to use it more throughout their day. In the future, people should be more open to reading more physical books and actually repeating the information in their mind to help them remember. We can still be able to use Google search, once in a while but only as a supplement and once we gain knowledge on the topic at hand, we should never forget it. When you rely on your thoughts and ponder on what you remember, you build confidence in yourself and your own knowledge instead of relying on others’ technologies.

Work Cited

“Brains Power vs Technology” Sunshine CoastDaily (13 September, 2011): n.p. LexisNexis. Web. 1 December 2015.

Bristol, Joanne. Personal Interview. 24 November. 2015.

Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows. New York: Norton, 2011. Print

Griffiths, Thomas L. “ Google and the Mind: Predicting Fluency with PageRank.” Psychological Science (18 December. 2007): 1069-1076. Academic Search Complete.Web. 1 December 2015.

Internet Live Stats. “Internet Live Stats”. The Official World Wide Web Anniversary Site.Web. 24 November 2015.

Medina, John. Brain Rules. Seattle: Pear Press, 2014. Print

St. Louis, Kayla. Personal Interview. 27 November. 2015.

Sullivan, Danny. “FAQ: All About The New Google ‘Hummingbird’ Algorithm”. Search Engine Land. Web. 28 November 2015.