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Topic: CXO

Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

Summary: It's not hard to see that there are people addicted to Google -- in fact, my first blog's name was Google Addiction, and it didn't take long for it to take off. In fact, only three months passed before ZDNet snapped it up and named it "Googling Google".

Garett Rogers

By Garett Rogers for Googling Google |

It's not hard to see that there are people addicted to Google -- in fact, my first blog's name was Google Addiction, and it didn't take long for it to take off. In fact, only three months passed before ZDNet snapped it up and named it "Googling Google".

Since then, this blog has become a lot more popular, and is now a source for interesting news on all things Google. It's clear to me -- we are addicted to Google, but is that a bad thing? More than ever, people are using Gmail to keep in touch with friends, cooking stuff with recipe's that were searched for, finding directions on Google Maps, checking out what movies are playing on Google Movies, and almost anything else you can think of.

It's amazing that you can learn anything with a quick Google search, remember anything you told Google at some point in the past, and do almost anything that used to require pen and paper using a combination of their other tools. In fact, you can make almost anything easier with Google. Really? Will it make climbing a mountain easier you might ask? Not physically, but you can figure out the best way up, calculate your oxygen needs, document your trek, publish pictures during the ascent, and then share what you have learned with others. If you set up some solar panels at the summit, you could probably even qualify for a Google Grant.

The tools Google gives us for free are making it easy -- perhaps too easy -- for us to bypass our own brains for things. We ourselves may become dummy terminals, where our brain is only responsible for subconscious tasks, short term memory and motor skills. Of course, I have no qualifications to know if there is even the possibility of this happening, but it may be an interesting research project for someone who does.

What do you think? Are our lives becoming too dependent on Google? Do we actually need to know or remember anything anymore, or is Google becoming our brain? Will using Google for an extended period of time physically alter the way we utilize our brain? If so, what happens if Google disappears?

Topics: CXO, Browser, Google

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22 comments
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  • The Illiterate Oral Society

    The question about the impact of Google is a very good one. In oral societies, people have a much better memory than we tend to have. Yet our society seems to be coming more and more of an oral society itself - without the benefit of a good memory. One of my students once said,"I don't read I watch."

    I too am addicted to Google. I love it. I know it gives me a lot of IQ point that I don't really have. But as we become more and more oral and more and more dependent on Google and other technology we may become a less literate society.
    bdrhoa
    Reply Vote

  • if the internet were to die:

    I'm fairly certain that productivity would die with it. As much as I use the internet & google for legitimate work information each day I know that my tasks would be literally impossible without the internet and google - and certainly less productive. Internet outage is, for me and many, a work killer.

    Also, I somewhat hope that our brains are changing (at least a little). Why bother remembering great deals of little insignificant details when we can think larger thoughts? Leave the sorting to computers - I'm here for analysis.
    K_REY_C
    Reply Vote

  • You are only as dependent as you want to be

    [i]What do you think? Are our lives becoming too dependent on Google? Do we actually need to know or remember anything anymore, or is Google becoming our brain? Will using Google for an extended period of time physically alter the way we utilize our brain?[/i]

    You give Google too much credit.

    Most of the things you have mentioned existed long before Google, and others will remain long after Google is gone.

    Google really does not make things easier, just different.
    GuidingLight
    Reply Vote

  • Google or Internet?

    I don't get it. Google is a search engine for me which I happen to use a LOT because it's the best, but it's where Google takes me that I'm addicted to and this is usually a news story or wikipedia or a bit of info from somewhere else. I have been addicted to this kind of thing since long before Google and Google gets no credit for the content these actual destinations offer.

    Google maps, Google mail - so what? I'm just as happy with the MS or Yahoo versions. I guess you are saying some people have an actual attachment for Google itself? What, maybe younger people who have only ever known Google as a portal? How strange. It sounds like AOL all over again. This kind of fetish is unhealthy I think.

    Hey, if Google died for some odd reason we wouldn't miss a beat because MS and Yahoo and Ask all have adequate search engines too. Equating Google with the Internet is just silly.
    I'd grant you that Google did make this kind of thing a lot easier. Searching the net used to be a pain before Google. But the others have come a long way. Makes you realize how tenuous Google's grip really is. If it went away not much would change at all i think.
    eggmanbubbagee@...
    Reply Vote

    • Young people that have only ever known ...

      MS as an OS. Now there's an idea ;-)
      fr0thy2
      Reply Vote

    • Google is cool, but not everything

      I totally agree, Googles influence on the development of the internet and some intersting new technologies might be big, but most of the things were also made available to the masses by other companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Lycos or Amazon. Maybe not so cool and hyped. Google is not everything. Neither is it changing the way our brains work, while internet and the new paradigms might be.
      rjudas
      Reply Vote

  • Message has been deleted.

    MIKEC0X
    Reply Vote

    • Fake Mike Cox -- very disappointing

      This is not even close to being on par with a true Mike Cox post. How pathetic, that you must put "COX" in your title as a plea for attention.

      You should stop promoting confusion with the Mike Cox name. Please leave the satire to the pros and go practice on some kiddie site. Once you're good enough, then come back with an original ID and give us some decent humor, not this rubbish.
      K B
      Reply Vote

      • He's not trying to promote anything

        other then his blog site, for the money would be my guess
        AllKnowingAllSeeing
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

    No doubt that google is the part of internet life.Lives are becoming too dependent on Google, for every search its easy to acess google.

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    ashi anthony
    Reply Vote

  • I dissagree, Google is making us smarter

    Now that we have access to more information at our finger tips, we can stuff more into our brains, and we can stay more informed about the world around us.

    I'm a web developer and 90% the technologies on my resume I initially learned online. If it were not for Google, I would not have found most of those resources.
    T1Oracle
    Reply Vote

    • I agree - Googling makes you smarter!

      I'm in product management - Google has given me the best resources to obtain the information I need that makes me knowledgeable.

      I don't understand the issue about literacy - how can you become illiterate when you read tons of articles while googling?
      ZD-Addict
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

    It's not helping your writing. The plural for "recipe" does not use an apostrophe. Google a 3rd grade English primer, maybe.
    barbyr
    Reply Vote

  • There's a Musical

    There's a musical about this. It's called Google: The Musical. You should Google it.
    KernelReefer
    Reply Vote

  • It's affecting my speech

    Using Google has affected the way I talk. I find that as I'm speaking, my brain is trying to optimize my message before it comes out of my mouth, so that in the least number of words I can get my message across. I find myself stopping mid sentence to adjust my thought and find this very odd as I'm sure the people I'm talking to do as well.

    I recall reading somewhere recently that Google will turn us into a society that becomes good at locating information, rather than remembering or memorizing it. As if our brains weren't underused as it is...
    AnonymousBugMeNotUser
    Reply Vote

  • Information vs. knowledge

    The Internet and search engines such as Google make it easier to find information. A pile of information is not knowledge, any more than a pile of bricks is a building. It takes brain power to put the information to use.
    Murfski-19971052791951115876031193613182
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

    jesus! i ws thinking same thing 3days back...all i do these days is to type something in google search engine and life is so easy..what if Google fails for oneday!!!
    i dont even want to think of that day..maybe that will d dooms day! lol
    Google is taking over our life...it's satanic..it knows everything..lol
    rasshad.khan
    Reply Vote

  • Look at this from 1705...amazing!

    Why, now that the people have easy access to books, and literacy is spreading wildly, our grand brains will decay to nothingness! All the world's knowledge on a shelf! Why, people will not need schooling any more, as they can simply consult the books in their home to learn anything at all. One can use books to learn the best seeds to plant for one's locality, how much to irrigate, and which fertilizers will maximize yield! In the past, this would have taken many years' hard experience to determine. All one will need to know is where the books are, and they will know as much as the grandest, most educated aristocrat. Books will make forgetfulness no longer a threat to one's livelihood! Lord help us all! How will society progress with such slothfulness reaping rewards?
    icebox93
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

    Very good article that raises important questions. It is true that with so much information available thanks to internet, there is no other way but to use Google (here I use the term Google as a collective symbol). But it also seems to me that it changes our stereotype drasticly. With so much information which we obviously are not able to memorize but need to consider and use in order at least to stay competitive we have to invent new criteria what to memorize (use off-line) and what to use on-line. If we are not able to find these criteria and choose the easiest way - always to google and become a terminal - then our brain will become less and less trained in remembering things. I don't believe this is an efficient behaviour, it even seems somewhat terrible to me. Then even our intuition will become rudimental. Or what will happen if I have to defend some thesis live - shall I google in order to answer questions from the audience? Shall I start answering with the following words: "Wait a minute, please, let me google for a while in order to be precise with my answer because I've pondered over this question but have forgotten some facts".
    We are still at the beginning of a new era of knowledge with new mechanisms to use it. I absolutely agree with Garret Rogers that there should be some research project on that.
    Marie55
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Is Google changing how our brains physically work?

    Did you say something? Let me see if I can find your answer on Google... hmmm.

    I just need Google to read it aloud to me now. :-P
    binarypc
    Reply Vote
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