Google makes us all dumber: The neuroscience of search engines | Salon | October 2014
As search engines get better, we become lazier. We’re hooked on easy answers and undervalue asking good questions.
“Google is known as a search engine, yet there is barely any searching
involved anymore. The gap between a question crystallizing in your mind
and an answer appearing at the top of your screen is shrinking all the
time. As a consequence, our ability to ask questions is atrophying.
Google’s head of search, Amit Singhal, asked if people are getting
better at articulating their search queries, sighed and said: ‘The more
accurate the machine gets, the lazier the questions become.’ …"The Internet can make us feel omniscient. But it’s the feeling of not knowing which inspires the desire to learn.”