As we move into Google’s second decade, some of our attention is turning to measuring its impact on how we think. Recent research suggests that the simple act of Google searching (and to some extent other digital, intellectual work) changes patterns of thinking and cognition. To borrow from Peter Morville, it may in fact be true that “what we search changes who we become”.
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To my knowledge, there is very little evidence that Google is having any impact on the way humans think or learn. However, in this month’s American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry an interesting article was published entitled “Your Brain on Google: Patterns of Cerebral Activation during Internet Searching“.
Researchers at University of California’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience examined twenty-four seniors from 55 to 76 years of age, of whom half had minimal Internet search experience (Net Naive group) and half had extensive experience (Net Savvy group). The groups were asked to perform Google searches while brain pattern activation was measured using MRI technology. The study found that Google searching engages a greater extent of neural circuitry than text-based reading controls.
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While more scientific research is needed, particularly in younger web users, this study comes as I am reading “Proust and the Squid: the Story and Science of the Reading Brain” by American academic Maryanne Wolf. Wolf argues that humans were not born to read but that our brains have adapted over five thousand year of reading text, what she calls the reading brain.
Some questions that arise from her arguments: Is there any difference in the way that we engage with texts online? If so, what are those differences? Does reading online affect our ability to engage with complex texts and ideas? Is the fragmentary, elusive nature of knowledge online detrimental to developing cognitive abilities? The author argues convincingly that a new brain is emerging in the digital age, one that threatens to displace the reading brain.
Clearly, human beings are deeply affected by search and the information they find on Google. Given the central place of search tools in our work, librarians are advised to keep up to emerging research (both scientific and social) in this area. If possible, we should engage in information ‘search’ research ourselves and contribute to better understanding of it at a time when all kinds of tools are competing for our time and attention.