Google 'damages users' brains'
Google damages the brains of its users by offering too much assistance in solving problems, an author has claimed.
Published: 7:04AM BST 13 Sep 2010
Google search engine Photo: ALAMY
Search engines’ function of providing us with information almost instantly means people are losing their intellectual capacity to store information, Nicolas Carr, said. The author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, claimed that the web was depriving our mental faculties of the regular workouts they need.
He told the BBC that the internet meant people now found it harder to concentrate, for example when trying to read a book. Mr Carr, who is behind the Rough Type blog, argued that to improve concentration sites such as Google should be made more difficult to use, a theory which contradicts software designers who compete to make their programmes simpler.
The comments came not long after Google launched Google Instant which delivers search results before you finish typing. "In many ways I admire Google, but I think they have a narrow view of the way we should be using our minds," he said.
“They have this... view that everything's about how efficiently you can find that particular bit of information you need – and then move on to the next."
The author singled out Google Books for criticism saying it did not “engage” people “in a long narrative”.
Mr Carr added that satellite-navigation meant people would begin to easily forget routes they had taken before. He said that the part of the brain that stores mental images of space would be diminished by GPS devices.
