Quite a while back Nicholas Carr suggested that Google is making us stupid. He got a lot of flack for that, but I have to admit that I agree with most of what he has to say, so much so that I even wrote my own blog about it. Now, a study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, claims to prove that searching the net – and by association, Google – doesn`t make us stupid but actually improves brain functioning. (At least in older internet users, and provided they already have the technical know-how to use search engines successfully.)

It`s difficult to argue with results from a legitimate study, but I sure am going to try.

Researchers studied the brain activity of two groups of slightly older American citizens, all aged between 55 and 78 years old with similar educational backgrounds. The only difference between the two groups of 12 was their computer experience: one had minimal experience and the other was considered “web savvy”. The savvy group displayed double the neural activity than the less savvy group, particularly in the areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

Dr Gary Small, who is one of lead researchers in the study, as well as a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour at UCLA, believes that the group with minimal computer experience showed less brain activity because the challenge was too new. Apparently, when we face new challenges our brains enter a sort of holding pattern until we figure out how to move forward. The more experienced group knew how to handle themselves online, so their neurons were firing like crazy.

Now, what are my issues with the study?

For one, the group was very small, only 24 people in total. Dr Small reckons that it`s big enough to be able to extrapolate relevant results, I argue otherwise. If you took a group of 24 people similar to you in terms of age and educational experience, would you be happy to have the results of a random study (perhaps the ability of 28 – 32 year olds to read the moods of others) generalised to include you. I wouldn`t. I would be quite ticked off that such a small sample was deemed accurate enough to apply to an entire generation, and I`m fairly certain that many other researchers and scientists would agree.

Second, the study showed that active searching i.e. determining the most appropriate search phrases that will deliver the desired results, improved brain functioning. That means that Google Suggest, and any other anticipatory or predictive mechanism, will negate that particular advantage. One doesn`t have to think at all when all one has to do is type in the first word of a topic to receive a plate full of alternatives.

Third, Carr`s point, the one that I agree with, isn’t that searching makes us stupid, it’s the mindless manner in which we absorb the information our searches deliver that kills our thought processes. We`ve forgotten how to read properly, all we do is skim. Our attention spans have been reduced to gnat size, and we`ve returned to our childhoods when pictures were essential for us to get to grips with a story. Our argument isn`t with search, in fact I wrote another blog post lamenting the increasing ease of search, and how we`ve come to expect results without having to work for them, it’s with what we do after we search.

Lastly, I agree with Liz Zelinski, a professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California, who says that in order to keep your brain sharp, you need to constantly present it with new challenges. If Dr Small`s study was conducted over a longer period of time, I`m sure that we would see significant improvement in the brain functioning of the less savvy group, while the savvy group would remain roughly the same.

It`s the same principle as advising people to do crossword-puzzles or anagram searches or number puzzles to keep their brains active. Once they`ve achieved a certain level, and they`re no longer challenged, their brain functioning reaches a plateau. To keep exercising your brain you need to keep increasing the challenge: move up from hard sudoku puzzles to fiendish, skip the easy clues and move onto the cryptic ones in your crossword.

If searching was really the key to improved brain functioning, I would be genius by now, and to my everlasting shame, I am not. In the spirit of inappropriate generalisation, I would say that as an otherwise individual, I disprove Dr Small`s results.

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