Human Memory and Information Processing; The Net's tangled web.

This article, The Google Effect , discusses the effect search engines have on our memories. Basically, we keep information we need but cannot access easily elsewhere in our memories. Before calculators, people could easily spout the answers to 9x6 or 15x5. Now most people either reach for a calculator or pen and paper to find the answer. Prior to spell check, we had to learn to spell each word. (That explains the abundance of then/than, where/wear, and other such errors!) Can you tell me the phone number of someone you call frequently? Without looking it up on your cell phone? Probably not. You don't have to remember the number because your phone does it for you.

That we can easily look up information is wonderful. I'm not sure it's so good for our ability to process information though. As children, most of us learned capitals of states and countries. We used that information to process other information. Imagine reading a news story about Nazi sympathizers Paris and not knowing what country Paris is in. If you don't know it is in France, the you might miss important clues that help you process the story. Knowing, and being able to recall, the location and history of Paris adds layers of meaning to the story.

Additionally, stored knowledge helps us make connections that we might otherwise miss. If you know that Druids wore robes and came from the British Isles, that much of the mountainous south in the United States was settled by Scottish Highlanders, and that those highlanders tended to be quite insular and fractious, then it is easier to make a connection between clan and Klan. If you also understand the ancient need for groups to be insular and tight knit in order to survive, the necessity of distinguishing between 'us' and 'them' in a place and time where competition for scarce resources was heavy, then it becomes easier to understand how human nature leads to exclusionary practices such as racism, sexism, and religionism.

What we understand, we can change. If we can't make the connections, we don't see the bigger picture, and so we lack the information necessary to recognize problems before they get out of hand. I love the availability of information on the internet. I can access books that I would never have known existed, I can learn how to do practically anything, and I am exposed to people and cultures that I might never have imagined without the internet. At the same time, however, I am less likely to clearly recall information because I know I don't have to store it in my memory in order to access it.