You may not be aware of it, but finding information on Google, or practically anywhere on the Internet actually changes your thought process.
According to a study conducted in 2011, your memory is affected by having all the world’s information at your fingertips. In the study, participants who used the Internet to access information were less likely to recall that same information later. Instead, they were able to recall where they found the information.
Basically, the Internet has caused our minds to shift gears. If we expect to have access to information at a later date, we don’t memorize the information, the only thing we commit to memory is how we found it.
This is a first in human history. Humans have always relied on internal memory — we memorize facts and information that we need. Now, we are using computers and the Internet as external memory. If we know the information is accessible elsewhere, we don’t actually retain it.
In the past, memorization was the primary method used in education. Children in the 19th century were expected to memorize parts of speeches, poetry, books.
As late as the early 2000s, teachers were still requiring students to memorize the Gettysburg address in its entirety and the preamble to the Constitution.
The shift away from memorization isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it might not be a bad idea to work on those memorization skills just a little more — just in case the Internet goes out when you need to recall an important fact.
