Is Google Making us Stupid?

"This was the title of a relatively recent article written by Nicholas Carr and published in the American Magazine The Atlantic. In it, Carr describes his worrying sense that his mind is not actually ‘going’, but is changing, as if his memory and neural circuitry was being tinkered with. He describes his inability to focus on a single thread of thought, and puts this down, not actually to the search engine itself, but to his growing dependence on ubiquitous online networking and its subsequent effect on the structure of our brains. Another of his fears is that it impairs memory. Why remember anything when there is Google can retrieve that knowledge in an instant?

I’m no neurobiologist, but Carr has a point. Our brains are muscles. Work and stretch parts of it and they will become quick, strong and versatile. So any relaxation of the ‘memory’ synapse will be countered by a strengthening in reading, navigation and problem-solving. As we know, misinformation and nonsense on the internet is rife, but this need not be considered a negative. Acknowledgement of this brings about questioning and debate, where the reader does not simply accept information as fact, but has both the insight and wherewithal to assess, compare and support the information he or she finds."

(unkown author)