What Is the Google Effect?

From the arrival of the internet with sophisticated search engines access to information there is the reach of our hands without requiring more effort. To such a point that our generation has adopted the term "googlear" to refer to the term search. But it is exactly that accessibility that allowed us to stop worrying about remembering.

To begin we must define what we mean by memory. And it is nothing more than the function of the brain that allows us to code store and retrieve information from the past. And that some theories suggest that it arises as a result of repetitive synaptic connections between neurons creating neural networks.

To be clear not only need to have neurons, but they manage to have communication through electrical impulses creating a network. And while we humans can have a billion neurons the interconnections between them are at least a thousand times more.

The memory allows to retain experiences of the past which are classified in short median and long duration or "persistence". The structure of the brain that is related to memory and learning is called the hippocampus and is usually supported by, for example, the nature of Alzheimer's disease because it attacks the neurons found in this area which causes loss of memory.

To put it in some way memory is proof that an apprenticeship took place and that is the reason why memory studies are always involved in learning.

With all this exposure and accessibility to information we would not feel the need to remember and it is this technological dependence that prevents us from memorizing the most common data and that leads us to what is known as a digital amnesia. That is, the experience of forgetting the information immediately when entrusting it to a device so that it remembers the information by us. That simple gesture that turns our Smartphone into a device similar to an extension of our brain.

A recent study by the security company kasperskilab revealed that more than half of mobile device users in the United States and Europe were unable to remember the phone numbers of their friends and neighbors.

To conclude we are not people who do not think and who do not have memories but to the time we remember more where to find the information that the information itself thanks to that all our devices are connected to improve our lives but that also has caused the birth of digital amnesia as a consequence of our dependence on the internet.

However, there is no reason to affirm that this effect did not exist before the internet because we could think of a situation similar to having more facility to have books and libraries but definitely the internet allows us to find what is practically instantly. Which was not possible when we only had books.