Google damanging brain by giving instant info

Author Nicolas Carr says internet is depriving our mental faculties of regular workouts

London: An author has claimed that Google is damaging the brain of its users by providing information almost instantly, leading people to lose their intellectual capacity to store information.
Nicolas Carr, the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, claimed that the web was depriving our mental faculties of the regular workouts they need. He said that the internet meant people now found it harder to concentrate, for example when trying to read a book.



Carr, who is behind the Rough Type blog, argued that to improve concentration sites such as Google should be made more difficult to use, a theory which contradicts software designers who compete to make their programmes simpler.
The comments came not long after Google launched Google Instant, which delivers search results before you finish typing.
"In many ways I admire Google, but I think they have a narrow view of the way we should be using our minds," he told the BBC News.
"They have this... view that everything's about how efficiently you can find that particular bit of information you need — and then move on to the next," he added.
The author singled out Google Books for criticism saying it did not "engage" people "in a long narrative".
Carr added that satellite-navigation meant people would begin to easily forget routes they had taken before. He said that GPS devices would diminish the part of the brain that stores mental images of space. —ANI

Facebook photos thwart wedding plans of US man

Philadelphia: An American man, who planned to marry an underage girl, has had his plans thwarted after it was discovered through social networking site Facebook.
Robert Nickson Jr, 27, had made plans to marry his 14-year-old fiancee, but after the Delaware county authorities had a chat with her, he was instead charged with statutory sexual assault.
Police revealed that Nickson had taken the girl, who he met through a mutual friend about a month ago, to the mall and bought her a ring.
The girl revealed that she had sex with Nickson on at least four occasions at the Lower Chichester apartment where he lives with his father.
It was also revealed that Nickson and his intended bride knew what they were doing was illegal, but they "didn't think they would get caught", and it was only after they posted their photos on Facebook that the matter came to light.
Along with the photos they also posted updates stating that they are "in love" and "engaged". —ANI