You've all heard it from maths Noobs: "I don't need to be good at maths, there are calculators." Technology is fantastic, it can truly improve and enhance our quality of life, but the danger is (well, apart from the obvious one, Robot apocalypse) is that we dumb ourselves down as we replace skills with a reliance on machines. We all do it, jump straight on Google when we want to know something, and we get instant information fed to us whenever we want it.
That's all well and good, especially when you're arguing about something with your mates, or you can't remember that film with Nicolas Cage in it. But if we rely on Google too much we may damage our memory, say researchers.
What's happening according to the latest studies is that our brains are starting to think of computers as "external memory" resulting in less memory/knowledge in our actual head. Prof Betsy Sparrow said of the phenomena dubbed the Google effect: “Human memory is adapting to new communications technology. We’re not thoughtless empty-headed people who don’t have memories anymore. But we are becoming particularly adept at remembering where to go find things [rather than the actual things]. And that’s kind of amazing.”
In a study titled "Google Effects on Memory: Consequences of having information at our Fingertips," researchers undertook four experiments involving student volunteers.
46 students from the Harvard were asked a series of true-false questions based on trivia such e.g. "An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain" before showing them words in different colours.
When the words could be linked to the internet, students responded more slowly and admitted they were contemplating searching for the answers on the web.
Now you've finished the article you can get on Google and search 'Ostrich brain.'