The majority of experts agree Google is good for the noodle.
In a February survey, the Pew Research Center asked expert respondents their views on Google’s effect on intelligence — 76 percent of the experts predicted people’s use of the Internet, particularly Google, will have enhanced human intelligence by 2020.
Twenty-one percent predicted people’s use of Google will not enhance human intelligence and may even lower people’s IQs, while 2 percent didn’t respond.
Pew posted the survey in response to an article by Nicholas Carr, technology analyst and pundit, entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”In his Atlantic Monthly article, Carr argued people aren’t thinking the way they used to because they have learned to skim and browse large amounts of information rather than deeply engage in it.
“In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book or by any other act of contemplation, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas,” Carr said in his article. “If we lose those quiet spaces or fill them up with ‘content,’ we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.”
Jennifer Curry, counselor education professor, researches problematic Internet use and said Google isn’t the best tool for good quality research.
“Being technologically savvy doesn’t make you a good researcher,” Curry said. “A lot of people don’t know how to accurately search and evaluate the information they’re getting.”
Anyone can post information online, and not all of it is reliable, Curry said.
“The best results usually aren’t what comes up first,” Curry said. “And the best quality articles aren’t free and downloadable.”
Google is best used for things like downloading music and finding local restaurants, Curry said.
But most experts disagree.
“I believe strongly Google is an aid,” said Brian Voss, vice chancellor for Information Technology & CIO. “Education and access to information may not make us smarter in an IQ sense, but it better informs our intellect and allows us make smart decisions.”
Voss said the old methods of research, such as using encyclopedias and other reference sources in the library, are inferior to what the Internet provides today.
“To go find something, we took hours, got tired, got distracted and usually got a limited set of viewpoints,” Voss said. “Google allows us to have a world of information at our mouse tips.”
Brandi Hebert, communication disorders senior, said Google is a more convenient way to research that allows people to be more informed.
Voss said online searching has the ability to help people find answers faster and thus expands people’s ability to concentrate on a greater number of things.
James Parker, civil engineering freshman, said he can see both sides to the argument.
“Google’s such a great source to use either way,” Parker said. “It provides good sources that you can further research.”
Voss said he doesn’t think Google is changing the way people think, but what people think about.
“In the past, part of the thinking process might have involved considering an issue or question and thinking about the answer — trying to reason it out,” Voss said. “But with the Internet, you have access to information in a few clicks. So perhaps the availability of the Internet is speeding the process of providing information into our thinking.”
For better or worse, people’s dependence on the Internet will impact the future.
“We are becoming more and more dependent upon the Internet — for communications, for social interactions, for our information about everything,” Voss said. “I believe the future will be shaped by this dependence.”
Curry said people’s dependence on Google is making them lazy.
“People are less likely to get out of their room and go to the library to search the stacks,” she said. “They want short synopses from third-party sources.”
Angelica Chantlin, education freshman, said Google is used as a crutch.
“Google is used for a quick answer,” Chantlin said.
Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]