Searching Answers on Google: the Digital Transformation of Memory and Society

The Influence of Technology and Google on Memory

Do you remember what a struggle it was to remember information? Now, with a Google search, the answers are right at your fingertips. Although technology has improved our lives in many ways, it has changed the way our brain works and processes information. Technology, like Google Web, has also changed the way we live our daily lives and the way we learn. The average number of Google searches per day has grown from 9,800 in 1998 to over 4.

7 trillion today. Our brain uses information stored in long-term memory to further our critical thinking. In order to understand and interact with the world around us, we need these unique memories.

Searching Answers on Google: Memory's New Ally

Although technology may not affect the information we receive, it does affect how we store it in our memory. Even though our brains can hold almost an infinite amount of information, technology can still have an effect on how much information we are able to store. According to Benjamin Storm, who leads a study says,“ Memory is changing. Our research shows that as we use the Internet to support and extend our memory, we become more reliant on it.” He continues to say that we would have to try to recall information on our own; now, we don’t even bother. As more information becomes available via Google, it becomes more reliant on our daily lives, he says. Our brains are slowly adapting to the technology. There is no need to memorize a map when GPS is in place to lead the way, and people can begin to lose their sense of direction. There is also little need to memorize phone numbers, because smartphones automatically program contacts. It's helpful to have Google available for data about anything and GPS that guarantees we never make a wrong turn. We are likewise ending up more defenseless to what specialists are calling advanced dementia. People can travel all around the world without a psychical map; with the capability of Google Maps, you can easily track where you are or where your destination is with a push of a button. Because of technology, we don’t rely on our memory as much. As technology does more for us, we rely on our memories less.

Digital Dementia and Dependence on Technology

Dementia is a loss of mental ability severe enough to interfere with normal activities of daily living. According to the blog “ Overuse of Technology Can Lead to digital dementia,” individuals who rely on technology may suffer deterioration in cerebral performance, such as short-term memory dysfunction. This blog continuously says how people have become highly dependent on technology to the point where it is ruining our brains. A study conducted at UCLA has shown some important information about the developing brains of young people. They’re spending 7 hours a day attached to technology. The effects on their brains are proving to be very damaging. “Over-use of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced development of the brain,” Byun Gi-won, a doctor at the Balance Brain Center in Seoul, told the JoongAng Daily newspaper. The U.S. study blamed modern lifestyles for the problem, saying that spending time on a computer and texting prevents people from focusing and memorizing information.

According to Betsy Sparrow, search engines like Google change the way we memorize and remember things. Sparrow and her team tested how people remember information when such information is stored somewhere accessible, like, say, the Internet. Experts call this transactive memory, being able to remember where you can get the information and not the information itself. The results of the study were the way our brain saves data has changed because of the “confidence” we have to find them online. “We’re not thoughtless empty-headed people who don’t have memories anymore,” Sparrow said. “But we are becoming particularly adept at remembering where to go find things, And that’s kind of amazing.” The study began by gathering 60 students who were asked to type 40 pieces of trivia; some examples were “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.”

Some students were told the information would be saved, and others were told it would be erased. To further the experiment, the participants were asked not only to remember the trivia statement itself but which of the five computer folders it was saved in. The research that was found from this showed students are “primed” to look to the Internet first for knowledge. Another experiment that was tested on 34 undergraduates in New York City showed that the students were able to remember where they stored that information better than they could remember the information themselves. “ it isn’t clear what the effects of being so wired will have on people over time.” Betsy Sparrow was very mind blown, “our brains rely on the internet for our memory in the same exact way our memory relies on a friend or a family member.”

Google's Impact on Society and Interpersonal Relationships

Technology not only transforms societies, but it also changes social interactions and relationships between people. Technology, like Google, has had a huge effect on our society. Google has been a very great research tool, but it has made people very lazy and dependent on technology. The use of this technology affects our health. It first affects the way of thinking. In today’s world, people are not only found dependent on technology, they can also be dependent on it. The utilization of social media has shortened our attention span from 12 minutes in order to 5 minutes. People who’re online for about 5 hours each day have trouble remembering people’s names and, in many cases, their own birthdays. “Our world has begun to revolve around technological goods, and we are becoming so much tech-freak that our social communication has been seriously disturbed.” I believe the advancement of technology has negatively impacted our social interactions because it detaches us from what is happening around us. Society must be able to use technology while not allowing it to disrupt our social interactions. Data shows that those who use the Internet frequently spend over 100 minutes less time with friends and family than non-Internet users, according to Norman H. Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus in their paper “The Impact of Internet Use on Sociability.” When our communication skills decrease, we begin “spending less time talking to families, experiencing more daily stress, and feeling more lonely and depressed,” writes Affonso.

A blog made by Tom Risen called “Is the Internet Bad for Society and Relationships?” They published a survey of about 1,000 adults about their views of how the Internet has had an impact on their lives. They were asked whether they thought the Internet was good or bad for society; 15% answered it was bad for society, 76% said it was good, and 8% were neutral. When the participants were asked if the Internet strengthened their relationships with family, 67% of Internet users said yes, 18 % said it weakens those relationships, 4% said both, and another 4% said neither.“I, too, see our relying on some kinds of outsourcing technology as both likely and helpful. But I also believe extreme dependency is a problem to be aware of” wrote Selinger. The constant switch from one task to another tires your brain out. The brain gets tired of the information, especially if the information is received chaotically. The brain takes time to “digest” the received data and to process this information. But instead of this, many people continue to stuff it with new information from social networks or the Internet, keeping away from resting.

References:

1. Gwinn, E. (2013). Overuse of Technology Can Lead to Digital Dementia. JoongAng Daily Newspaper.

2. Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776-778. DOI: 10.1126/science.1207745

3. Chatterjee, A., Bhanot, S., Frank, L. B., Murphy, S. T., & Power, G. (2009). Online Social Networks and Health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 38(4), 438-441. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.12.006

4. Nie, N. H., & Hillygus, D. S. (2002). The Impact of Internet Use on Sociability: Time-Diary Findings. IT & Society, 1(1), 1-20.

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