Is Google Making Us Stupid? Or Making Us More Intelligent and Increasing Our Productivity?

Google has no doubt made all our lives a hell of a lot easier and simpler. Anytime we have a question, a query or have a temporary memory lapse we can turn to Google and have all our problems answer in a matter of seconds.

This has good and bad points.

On the one hand it means that we aren’t pushing ourselves and making use of our memories and innate intelligence as we become more dependent on Google and other such search engines to act on our behalf.

“Severe mental decline is usually caused by disease, whereas most age-related losses in memory or motor skills simply result from inactivity and a lack of mental exercise and stimulation. In other words, use it or lose it.”
Franklin Institute

I would have to disagree with the fact that Google is making us stupid. I don’t oppose the idea that it has the potential to replace brain activity but I think on the whole, along with other technological advancements it has the promise to expand and increase our knowledge. Not only that, it allows us to focus on the completion of tasks which may be more efficiently completed as we become more readily informed.

This week, the Harvard Business Review agrees with me.

The HBGR’s Paul Michelman contends that yes, the Internet is helping to rewire our brains. He says:

"We are heading towards a deeper immersion in ideas - but of a very different kind that we experienced in the pre-Web days. We will take our new-found abilities to consume and contextualize multiple ideas and multiple forms of media and combine it with our long-held ability to dive deep into text-based content."

Make constructive use of the tools available. If used in adjunct to our own memories and intelligence they have the potential to increase our acumen whatever the topic.
Most experts agree that Google won't make us stupid.

Indeed, 76% of technology stakeholders and critics interviewed by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University believe that the Internet and search engines will enhance human intelligence by 2020.