Is Google damaging your brain? Not quite

Is Google damaging your brain? Not quite

There can be two reactions to the new Google Instant that offers search results even before the complete search term is typed. One is wow. The other is fret about what it is doing to us. A London-based author says Google, by offering quick information, is affecting our capacity to store information. He argues that the search engine deprives our brain of daily calisthenics, and it could remedy that by making search difficult. 

Going by his view, where one ought to be self-reliant, one could admit that the overdependence on Google can be damaging. But these are times of immense constraints, time being the biggest. We are information economies, heavily reliant on swift communication and implementation. What's useful is not deep thinking but quick thinking. There is no replacement for wisdom, but when millions can be won or lost in an instant, speed is vital.

Technologies are created to address specific needs and they shape us in turn. Technological determinism has for long led societies and cultures to realign themselves to changes in modes of production. This generation's is a wired reality, of the 'wisdom of crowds', where aggregation of information in groups, facilitated by portals like Google, result in decisions that are sometimes superior to those made by a single person. Fast-paced technological change will forever put values in flux. It's inevitable.