Introduction
The Google search drive can be said to be an incredibly important part of the researchers’ most reliable tool. The search drive, since it was discovered by Larry and Sergy has continued to attract a lot of attention ranging form students, to people seeking information for general purposes. Today, Google search drive can be said to be the leading internet tool which is relied on by a lot of people. The situation has raised an alarm because Google has been accused of making a full out of its users and other people. Although the search tool and, more so, its founders deserve credit, it is imperative to note that equally there are uncountable demerits brought about by Google than the benefits. This essay attempts to confirm the fact that even though Google has all the information we could possibly ever want; Google equally has discouraged our brains from being creative. This is because we have become more of a fact researchers rather than a fact memorizer.
The side Effects
As indicated above, Google has made most of its users to be unable to remember information. This is because most people have realized that there is no need to make the brain tired because much of the information we need can easily be accessed through Google search engines. This has made the brains of those who use Google not to function as it is required hence making their brains indolent. The laziness here means that such students do not fully utilize their abilities but wait until other people post on websites to get information from there. To make the situation worse, Google has made a false assurance to its users that they can always visit them to retrieve any forgotten information. This is without troubling their minds to remember any needed information. This has contributed to low human productivity because people do not use their brains as required to create more innovations. The number of innovations made in the recent past since the invention of Google as the leading search engine has significantly decreased.
Google has also been accused by educators of promoting poor learning habits in the society. The key reason for this is that students have developed the culture of over relying on Google and other search engines during assignments which require research. Students end up just copy pasting or duplicating all sort of information found in Google and submitting the works to the instructors. The fact that such works lack the magnitude most instructors require leaves the students complaining of low grades. Creativity has also been reported to lack in most students’ assignments. Most of them do lack time to utilize their capacity to reason due to relying on Google. Such students have had a rough time because most instructors understand the works which do not have original concepts. Lack of original concepts has made numerous students suffer harm due to conflicts with their instructors.
Before the discovery of Google, people could spend a lot of time in the libraries searching for information and more so students. With the discovery of Google, the same people no longer visit libraries with the consolation of Google. The only thing many of these Google users do not understand is that the information they get from Google cannot be relied upon. This is because Google’s content sometimes does not come from reliable sources. Some people post their own thoughts in the websites. This is a dangerous trade because relying on people’s thoughts only makes those who do so to appear non creative. It also makes people look like bamboozles as somebody’s thoughts may be incorrect and using them can only show that such a person did not do their research correctly (Eaton 1)
Much of the content in Google normally comes from media which has been seen as a great consumer of unconfirmed stories and information. Reading such information only makes a person to be a consumer of the same information whose truth value may be wanting. Maryanne Wolf remarked, “We are not what we readwe are how we read” (Carr N. 1). The statement can be said to be true in the sense that people should be at liberty to get information from where they want. The only challenge is that a good number of people do not understand that the knowledge they get from different sources should be critically analyzed to avoid getting it all wrong. The Information we get from search engines such as Google should be acutely synthesized to ensure that it is reliable. Such information from Google and any other search engine should also be compared with other information from other reliable sources. This is because failure to check carefully how we read can easily show and define us in a negative way.
The internet which contains the search engines has brought about a lot of negative effects to its users. People are seriously over depending on the internet. People’s cognitive development has been impaired by this overdependence. ‘It is becoming our map and our lock our printing press and our typewriter’ (Carr N.p17), this clearly shows how the current generation has made the internet to overcome their power to research.
Carr further made an important remark when he said, “Through our tools, we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstance over nature, over time and distance, over another” (Carr 44).The only variation between Google users and this statement can be said to be the fact that most of people and especially students do not use this search engine to expand their knowledge. The problem is that they use information from Google and take it as Gospel truth without looking at its side effects. This has seriously brought a lot of underperformance in schools especially where innovation is concerned. There is need for people to use this information but wisely to enhance their capacity to think. About 200 million people visit the Google search engine on a daily basis. Out of this numbers, 90% are students either from all levels of learning.
Those students who cannot access internet can be said to be left out because the search engine can only be accessed through internet. A close study in learning institutions shows that students who can access the internet are likely to do more in their studies yet the case does not seem to be fully true. Those who cannot access internet have a chance to be creative and present well researched work to ensure that theirs is nothing short of quality and original work. This has brought out a lot of imbalance in institutions of learner where a section of learners entirely rely on the search engines (Google) for all their research work. This situation came closer to me when we were in college. Our instructor had given us an assignment as a group. Most of us did incredibly well in research work before we compiled the final report. After the work was submitted to our instructor we got zero. The fact is that the whole class had done this research from the same website and ended up forwarding similar work. This became the moment when I realized the side effects of Google.
In wrapping up, this search engine has played a key role in the development of the research institutions where unlike what used to happen in the past, people never used to use search engines as it is the case today. Google, as much as it has benefits to users, the benefits are minimal as compared to the disadvantages. It is imperative for people to come to recognize whatever Google is doing to them. If students, parents, and all educators will not take time to address this menace, the damage will be too much to be controlled.
Work Cited
Carr N. Is Google Making Us Stupid? Web On 9th Dec. 2012 from: <> 2012.
Eaton K. The Side-Effects of Google Instant. Web on 10th Dec. 2012 from: <> 2010
