"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'
'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'
'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."
-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)
I agree with what Page said about Google becoming part of our way of thinking. I can clearly see it being a part of mine. When I am curious about a topic I immediately check Google and see what comes up. If I really get interested I will dig more and even go to the library to get some books. However, it never starts with books for me. Unlike my parents.
My dad likes to bring up when I use google and the rest of the internet to do reports and research papers how he used encyclopedias and had to go find books at school and the public library. I can also tell Google and internet search is not a part of my parents thinking because my mom is always buying books to find new cooking and baking recipes, and I tell her that she can just Google something and find tons of free recipes and even videos of the preparation. It is almost like I am coaching her.
Regarding memory, I don’t think that the convenience has much of an affect on my memory. I remember quite a lot of what I look up via internet search. I even remember, most of the time, the terms I used to find the site I thought was really good.
Some one might argue that approaching the internet for information can actually distract you from what you are seeking. How unlike a book. However, it is all information, only the device in which you extract that information is different. And if one is truly driven to find the information they seek, they will not get distracted. On the internet one can get thrown off by adds or a site with a funny name. With a text, the person next to you on the bus looks absurd and distracts you from the pages. It is all the same, just in different forms and thus the level of distraction there is from attaining the information is dependent upon the individual’s ability to concentrate.
Time and priorities: just recently I have noticed myself, not getting distracted from what I am looking for on the internet, but getting distracted from school work because, with acquiring a personal laptop, I now have easy access to internet search and can quickly and effortlessly chase my impulsive mental inquiries. I’m doing my homework with half my brain. The other half is thinking about that oddly phrased movement in that Rachmaninoff Sonata and I immediately hit a good idea about it and I have to bring up the internet and listen to see if what I thought holds true. With the ease of my laptop and the frictionless aspect of todays Google and Youtube searches easily pulls me away from my priority; school work. In this way I see this disrupting priorities in real space. Oppositely, though, in cyberspace I seem to be pretty on top of my priorities in what I am looking for or doing.
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